Manila firemen want people sending false alarm punished

MANILA, Philippines — Firefighters in Manila rushed to the scene of a burning truck in Tondo on Thursday, only to find the vehicle intact and safely parked near the Manila International Container Terminal.

Four fire trucks, including one from the Manila Fire District, rushed to the area after the volunteer firefighting group Recto Engine received a call for response.

A photo showing a trailer truck in flames at Parola Compound in Barangay 20 was also received.

But when the firemen arrived, they found the trailer truck intact and without any sign of being razed.

Samuel Fenix, Barangay 266 Zone 24 chairman and Recto Engine volunteer firefighting group chief, said the photo, posted to his online chat group by one of his followers, could have been generated using artificial intelligence or AI.

Out of frustration, Fenix posted on the Recto Engine’s Facebook page the AI-generated photo and their response with the caption: “Sa gumawa nito sana managot (The one who did this should be penalized).”

Fenix noted that false alarms could cause inconvenience to responders as well as road accidents.

“Nagmamadali kami, either makasagi kami… Tumatakbo kami sa sunog, tapos pagdating doon fake news pala. Sana mapanagot kasi hindi biro ginagawa nila (We were rushing, we could have bumped a vehicle… only to find out that it was fake news. Those behind this should be penalized because what they did was no joke),” he told GMA News.