What price, progress?
When I was in high school, the LUDO and LUYM building started construction. Each time we got near the then Juan Luna Avenue, the sound of the pile driving pierced our ears leading our teenage minds to imagine that the foundation built was so strong as to last for generations.
Upon its completion, all of us, Cebuanos, took an unbridled pride in it being the tallest building in southern Philippines. We always found time to visit it. On top of the LUDO and LUYM building, there was a revolving restaurant. Was it on the 15th floor? We were told that it was one of a kind of a feature because, as it would complete the turn, it allowed us a full view of the city without having to transfer places. The owners even installed large binoculars that, on clear days, made it possible for us to have not just the breathtaking view of the entire city but of distant Bohol, as well.
As I talk about that edifice, rather sentimentally, let me corrupt an old punch line. With due respect to the author whose name escapes my mind, allow me to say: "What price, progress?" This is an appropriate line to apply to the sprouting of tall buildings in our city as indicia of its progress. The LUDO and LUYM building is no longer the tallest edifice in this part of the world. While still standing, it does not hold that title anymore.
Today, there are many structures that literally shoot up into the sky. Oh, if I may say it again, "what progress!" These are taller than that prized building erected by the brothers Cayetano and Paterno Ludo. (I hope I got their correct names.) In the Ayala's Cebu Business Park alone, several buildings are more than 20 stories high. There are those that are devoted to office spaces, and others are residential condominiums. Whatever use these structures are dedicated to, they become the customary places for hundreds if not thousands of regular occupants.
While we realize the vertical development of our city, evidence of its leapfrog progress, let me also startle your otherwise happy imagination, with the memory of an old movie entitled "The Towering Inferno." This disaster film, starring Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and William Holden, was produced in 1974, more than four decades ago. Its plot was of a fire that struck in the higher floors of a brand new building.
I do not want to recall the entire story of that movie because this article is, true to its off-tangent nature, not about movies. I have in mind one, the possible helplessness of our firefighters in the event of fires taking places in the upper floors of high-rise buildings well beyond the capability of their hoses and the length of existing fire-ladders and two, of the impending catastrophe the victims might be exposed to.
Our government leaders are prone to a lot of display. When ambulances and police cars are distributed to local government units, they make sure that their pictures dominate the front pages of newspapers. But I am not aware of recent acquisitions either by national or local governments of fire fighting machines with capability to train heavy volume of water to put out fires that hit tall buildings. There is no better time than now to purchase such needed equipment.
Our existing fire-ladders are so antiquated that our firemen, using this equipment, can only reach as high as the eighth floor of any present building. What happens if fire hits say the 12th floor of a 22-story structure? Shall we just ask occupants of high-rise buildings hit by fires to wait until they are charred? Or order them to jump to certain death? It is horrible to think of these ghastly scenes and so let our government do everything now to anticipate such eerie situations.
In the meantime, can we not legislate that all owners of tall structures under certain defined standards, equip their buildings not just with normal sprinklers but with landing pads for helicopters? And to make such legislation realistic, let our government equip our fire department with such modern equipment as helicopter fire fighter and rescue units. This is the price of progress.
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