AUGUST was the deadliest month in Cebu City when it came to fire incidents in 2021—it saw seven deaths.
These deaths happened in a residential area in Barangay Sta. Cruz. Five of these fatalities belonged to one family. The youngest was only three years old.
A total of nine fatalities were recorded in 2021: one each in March and December.
No fatalities were recorded in 2019 and 2020, according to the Cebu City Fire Office’s (CCFO) comparative data of fire incidents in the past three years.
The CCFO released its statistics on fire incidents on Thursday, March 3, 2022 in time for the Fire Prevention Month.
According to the CCFO, firefighters responded to a total of 203 fire incidents in 2021, and December had the most incidents at 37.
In the aftermath of Typhoon Odette (Rai), which struck Cebu last Dec. 16, a power outage hit the city and other parts of Metro Cebu and Cebu Province.
Several city residents, mostly living in depressed or densely populated areas, used candles to light up their evenings. Fire officials blamed unattended candles as the cause of the fires last December.
In the same year, there were 23 incidents in May, a summer month; 21 in April, 18 in March, 17 in January, 15 in February, 14 in June, 14 in September, 12 in July, 12 in August, 10 in October and 10 in November.
About P100.6 million worth of properties were lost in the fire incidents last year, 148 percent higher than 2020’s P40.6 million and 497 percent higher than 2019’s P16.8 million.
Fire prevention month
The Philippines has been observing Fire Prevention Month every March by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 115-A declared by President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1966.
March was chosen since most of the fire incidents happened in this month in the country. The usual dry months in the Philippines are March, April and May. But with the changing global climate, these months could see heavy rains, even typhoons.
In the past three years in Cebu City, the most number of fires happened outside March: 73 in April 2019, 24 in January 2020, and 37 in December 2021.
Also, in the last three years the most number of fire incidents occurred in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 with 457—23 in January, 50 in February, 70 in March, 73 in April, 46 in May, 32 in June, 27 in July, 33 in August, 31 in September, 26 in October, 22 in November and 24 in December.
There were only 192 fires in 2020—24 in January, 23 in February, 23 in March, 21 in April, 15 in May, 13 in June, five in July, 13 in August, 13 in September, 13 in October, 15 in November and 14 in December.
In 2019, fires hit 97 non-residential establishments (business establishments, buildings, schools), 61 residential areas and 26 vehicles. The CCFO also responded to 97 grass fires, 87 fires in areas where garbage is dumped and 89 fires that hit electrical poles.
In the following year, fires hit 120 residential areas, 32 non-residential areas and 22 vehicles.
The CCFO responded to 19 non-structural fires (grass, garbage). The data for 2021 is incomplete.
Also, the CCFO has no data on the number of families displaced by fires, at least from 2019 to 2021.
Of the 852 fire incidents, 11 were caused by arson, and the CCFO has identified and charged the persons behind the incidents.
The CCFO has filed 11 arson cases—one in 2019, three in 2020 and seven in 2021. Nine of the cases are already filed in court and the accused are on trial, while the two other cases are pending before the city prosecutor’s office.