An inevitable lesson

Among the big conflagrations that took place in the past here in Cebu City happened in densely populated areas. Barangays Lorega-San Miguel and T Padilla in the north district and Duljo-Fatima in the south could be mentioned as examples. The reason commonly given by the Bureau of Fire Protection for the quick spread of the fire was that the houses there were built of light materials and close to one another. Then, fire authorities would not fail to mention as a contributing factor that responding fire trucks could not easily penetrate the burning area.

Of recent times, the fire has given way to the unbelievably destructive pandemic. The exponential explosion of infections, a million times worse than the biggest recorded fire, also took place (as they have been happening) in areas where people closely live, converge and interact. That should primarily explain the horrible situation in the over-crowded jails. In so short a time, the coronavirus got transmitted among many persons legally deprived of liberty. I was told that those found COVID-19 positive were incarcerated in elbow-to-elbow conditions. No such thing as “social distancing.” Consequently, the infection chart steeply climbed in harrowing suddenness.

Of lesser but still fearful gravity are the transmissions of the disease in congested residential places. Have you ever seen how compact are the houses in Sitio Zapatera, Barangay Luz? The kind of housing in some areas in Tejero and Carreta (and for that matter, Sitio Bato, Barangay Ermita) is not different. The structures are built side by side such that their doors look like room entrances. Those who tested positive in these places had their social encounters in the immediate areas just outside of their homes. The residents kept no distance from one another.

True to the off-tangent nature of this column, I will not dwell on the reports that the number of COVID 19 cases in Cebu City has breached the records in Metro Manila. We should not be alarmed. In fact, we should congratulate Mayor Edgardo Labella for using good foresight to acquire testing equipment and facilities far exceeding other local government units. The increasing graph (106 new cases when I wrote this column yesterday to bring to a total of 2,988 cases) is only the result of the city’s improved disease testing capacity.

Rather, I try to bring to the attention of the city leadership a lesson from these disasters. The occurrence of fire and the spread in viral infection may be prevented by people and houses safely distanced. This is the “new normal” this pandemic has succeeded to educate us with. The city has to adopt a new urban planning scheme that puts homes in safe appreciable distances and provided with fast access to emergency responders. It may not be quick and easy. Social hurt will initially be felt deeply with squatter shanties having to be demolished while the costs will be economically staggering. But reinventing the way we live to conform to the demands of this new normal is inevitable. There must no longer be congested habitation. It is not a matter of “If.” Doing it soon will reduce the possibility of the recurrence of cataclysmic disasters. The fires of the past and the current crisis are the most compelling arguments.