Caloocan firefighters call for fire summit

A new group of Caloocan-based members of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) yesterday called for a nationwide fire summit in a bid to overhaul what it calls an "already obsolete" National Fire Code and to meet head on the problems confronting the fire agency itself.

The Foundation For Filipino Fire Fighters (F-5), a foundation established only a year ago and with a growing membership nationwide, said the summit is hoped to gather all sectors, public and private, to deal with the myriad fire-related problems in the country.

Van Resurreccion, F-5 founding chairman, said the call to unity and action was prompted by the fact that the BFP has been constantly mocked and sneered at not only by the deadly fires breaking out mostly during the fire prevention month of March but pushed by alleged government apathy.

Resurreccion said in a statement that the national leadership must do something as fires are a real and actual threat to the realization of President Arroyo’s 10-point development program. "Fires do set back whatever economic strides a community has gained," he said. He said that if summits have been held to tackle the problem on illegal drugs, waste disposal, the economy, national security and crime incidence, a fire summit should also be considered as fires do affect the whole society in a significant manner.

Citing BFP records, Resurreccion said that some 83,411 fire incidents hit the country from 1995 to 2004 destroying more than P52-billion worth of properties or a P5-billion loss annually.

The official said the recent fire in Boracay, which allegedly destroyed more than P200-million worth of tourist facilities, showed the economic impact of fires in the country. The incident, he said, showed the local agency’s "obscene" lack of firefighting equipment and its personnel’s alleged lack of training. The island allegedly had only one small "Jurassic" firetruck.

The official also revealed that out of the country’s 1,501 municipalities, only about a third (650) have fire stations with at least one firetruck leaving the others (851) unprotected.

Resurreccion said those shortcomings and other problems are already known to concerned officials but are handcuffed by a lack of a comprehensive program to deal with the same problems. He said that a comprehensive approach can be crafted to solve the problems through the summit they are calling for.