Fire incidents down 65% in March

The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said yesterday fire incidents dropped by 65 percent during this year’s observation of the Fire Prevention Month compared to figures during the same period last year.

BFP officials attributed the effective information dissemination for Fire Prevention Month, which ended yesterday.

BFP chief Director Rogelio Asignado said from March 1 to 30 this year 572 fire incidents were recorded in the country.

A total of 1,672 fire incidents were recorded during the same period last year.

"Our information campaign has posted dividends. We solicited the help of the media, we went to schools and we also visited barangays to spread valuable tips on how to prevent fire," Asignado said.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno led the BFP’s culminating ceremonies of the 40th Fire Prevention Month at the BFP central office in Cubao, Quezon City.

Of the 572 fire incidents in the country, 32 occurred in Metro Manila. There were 470 fires last year.

BFP spokesman Chief Inspector Renato Marcial said four people were killed and 15 civilians and firemen were hurt in fires last month, compared to 33 fatalities and 57 injured persons during the same period last year.

Puno, whose department supervises the BFP, vowed to provide at least one firetruck to each town and city in the country. Currently, only 780 of the 1,600 towns have fire stations.

The DILG chief said he would ask all congressmen to set aside a portion from their countryside development fund for the purchase of firetrucks.

To help acquire fire equipment, Puno signed a memorandum of agreement with Land Bank of the Philippines acting president and chief executive officer Gilda Pico to make available a loan facility exclusively to the purchase of fire fighting equipment.

"This MOA will make available funds that can be lent to local government units for the purchase of fire fighting equipment, firetrucks, for fire fighting training, setting up of fire hydrants, rehabilitation of existing water supply lines and the improvement of fire stations," Puno said.

He added that he will make sure that BFP personnel benefit from government housing programs to encourage graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) to join the BFP and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

"Of the 177 PNPA graduates this year, only nine went to the BFP, while five went to BJMP, all the rest joined the Philippine National Police. Maybe we can solve this problem by having a quota system similar to the Philippine Military Academy, whose graduates are distributed evenly to the different services," Puno said.

Puno also vowed to make BFP one of the finest bureaus in the government. — Cecille Suerte Felipe