FIRE incidents in Davao City rose by 32.1 percent from January to December 2018 with 416 cases which is higher compared to the same period in 2017.
In an effort to lower the fire incidents in the city, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) will implement the Oplan Ligtas Pamayanan (OLP) program to empower the communities to be disaster-resilient.
Senior Fire Officer (SFO) 2 Ramil Gillado, BFP Davao Region chief of the intelligence and investigation section, said on Tuesday, January 8, that most of the fire incidents that occurred in the city were in residential areas.
Based on their record, electrical short circuit, arcing due to loose connection, overheated electrical appliance, unattended cooking, child playing lighted matchsticks or lighter were the common causes of fire and they observed that most of the communities are not fire safety conscious.
In 2017, the total damage worth of properties reached P2,285,891,195 because of the big business establishments that were razed by fire including Lapanday's two box plants in Barangay Mandug. The amount dropped in 2018 to P137,849,920.
In 2019, Gillado said they will strengthen their community engagement and information dissemination to the grassroots level with their OLP campaign to equip the residents with appropriate knowledge on how to respond to fire incidents.
“We will develop our barangay, the lowest unit of our community and prepare them to become disaster resilient especially when it comes to fire,” Gillado said.
The program has four components including Handang Pamayanan Program wherein the BFP officials will train barangay personnel to create their own fire prevention plan and protection plan so they would know how to respond to prevent fire from escalating and also initiate activities or seminar to their constituents.
The second is the Bayanihan Program. The existing fire brigade of barangays will be restructured and renamed to community fire auxiliary group (CFAG). The CFAG will be created to serve as rescue team in case of fire incident and emergency medical team to handle injured persons.
BFP personnel will also be deployed on the ground to conduct training program for the Kaagapay Program and the last one is the Lingap program. Gillado said that they will help the barangay to make a mapping in their area, identify fire prone areas at the same time sight possible problem that might be encountered in the future may it be narrow streets and lack of water hydrants for better planning.