A DISASTER-FREE New Year’s Eve celebration and a peaceful midterm election are what Cebu City’s top officials are hoping for in 2019.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña on Sunday, Dec. 30, reminded the public to be extra careful to avoid another holiday blaze.

“I’m giving a general alarm that New Year’s Eve is a recipe for a big fire because people will double park everywhere, traffic will be bad, fire trucks cannot move in and people are playing with firecrackers. It only takes one and the whole barangay can go down in flames. We had the worst fire this year in Duljo... the year is not yet over. God forbid that we are reckless and you don’t listen to the warnings,” he said.

At dawn on Christmas Day, the City Government recorded the biggest fire this year, razing 391 houses and leaving 641 families or 2,783 individuals homeless.

The families will welcome the new year in evacuation sites.

Osmeña ordered close to 2,000 tanods in the city’s 80 barangays to discourage members of their communities from playing with firecrackers to avoid untoward incidents.

The mayor described a massive fire like the one in Duljo as his “worst nightmare.”

“I would just like everybody to be alert. Please discourage, I’m not saying arrest those playing with firecrackers, but just tell them to please stop, they can go somewhere else and play in the South Road Properties. We don’t have the capability to respond to a major fire with all the anticipated crowd, traffic and what else. Let’s hope for a very peaceful new year and I’d be happy if we don’t have such incident,” he said.

Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, for his part, is also wishing for a safer, more peaceful and prosperous new year.

Since the coming year rings in the election season, Labella is also hoping for a peaceful midterm polls in May.

Labella of Partido Barug and Osmeña of Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan will face each other in the mayoral race.

“I hope and pray that the forthcoming election will be a peaceful one, so that the right of suffrage that is being enshrined under our Constitution will be fully and efficiently exercised by our people,” Labella said. RTF