EDITORIAL — Fires know no season

Last Friday dawn, a fire hit a residential area in Sitio Bamboo, Barangay Inayawan, Cebu City, leaving around 140 individuals comprising 33 families homeless.

The Inayawan Fire Brigade said that the fire started at 3:09 A.M. from a house and rapidly spread to other nearby houses mostly made of light materials.

Two days earlier last Wednesday, 100 homes were lost to a fire in Sitio Mananga II, Barangay Tabunok, Talisay City, Cebu, causing an estimated ?2.55 million in damage.

According to the City of Talisay Fire Station, the fire was first reported at 2:11 P.M., suspected by some residents to have been sparked by welding torch embers, and quickly escalated.

Fortunately, there were no reported fatalities during both fires, although two individuals suffered second-degree burns trying to escape the Inayawan fire.

We are now well past March, the designated Fire Prevention Month, and are even well into the rainy season. But in the season of too much water one must still be wary of fire because fires know no season.

The recipe for a disastrous fire is still present in many parts of our major cities; many of urban neighborhoods are still densely packed and the few streets that snake into interior portions are too narrow to accommodate rescue vehicles in the case of any emergency.

Plus many houses in such areas are made of light materials that can catch fire and spread easily.

We know this isn’t an easy issue to address; not everyone can afford a house not entirely made of light materials, not everyone can afford to live in a neighborhood where the houses are a respectable and safe distance apart. Not all barangays and neighborhoods can afford to widen their roads for easy access by emergency vehicles.

But all of us can start with being pro-active for fires. If we live in areas that we can do nothing about, we can at least be aware of what behavior can contribute to risk of fire. Like cooking with an open flame, or welding without safeguarding where the sparks fall, or leaving matches, lighters, and other sources of flame where kids can find and play with them, or blocking crucial fire exits, among others.

No one should be left without a house as the rains start to fall.