NEARING the first half of the Fire Prevention Month, the Bureau of Fire Protection in Northern Mindanao (BFP-10) has already recorded dozens of fire incidents in the region.
Engineer Noli Dela Rita, BFP-10 spokesman, said that in March alone the fire bureau recorded around 56 fire incidents.
As to the amount of damages due to fire, Dela Rita said they have not collated the data yet for the month but it could be less than a million excluding the fire incident in Initao, Misamis Oriental this week.
He added that during the first quarter this year, BFP-10 estimated around 100 fire incidents that were recorded in their office.
“There are days that fire incident reports would range from one to three and some days none,” Dela Rita said.
He said that faulty electrical wirings have remained the main reason for fires, but the incident reports have increased due to grass fires as dry spell is being felt now.
Comparative report
Based on a document given to this paper, residential fire incidents in the year 2013 reached 583 while in 2012 there were only 324.
For industries and factories, the fire bureau tallied 54,327,800 incidents in 2012 and 323,373,892 in 2013.
Dela Rita said the costliest fire incident last year was the Granex Corporation in Barangay Kiwalan, Iligan city, where it took five days of firefighting with an estimated damage of P583 million.
Gabriel Nanol, a second placer of the Fire Basic Recruitment Course nationwide, told Sun*Star Cagayan de Oro that he was trained to do various tasks considering mostly worst case scenarios.
He said mentally and physically he will do the best he can to help BFP-10 in various tasks especially in firefighting.
“I was equipped in dealing with worst case scenarios,” Nanol said.
Fire fighting force
In the region, Dela Rita said there are 815 firemen that are manning the 39 fire stations on various shifts.
He said there are eight fire stations in Lanao Del Norte, 15 in Misamis Oriental, 12 in Bukidnon, and four in Camiguin.
Dela Rita added there are 88 fire trucks that are under the BFP-10 in the region while another 21 fire trucks are under the local government units.
He said they have no records as to the number of fire trucks and personnel from volunteer firefighters in the region.
Meanwhile, of the 815 firemen in the region one of them graduated with flying colors during the recent batch of firefighters who graduated February this year.
Call
Dela Rita said he is urging the public to be careful with fire use.
u2018It is normal that fire incidents would spike in March because of the hot weather.
He furthered that dried leaves and other materials that can easily burn during hot season is the usual reason behind fire incidents.
“If we can implement something that is beyond red alert status, we would implement it all year round,” Dela Rita said.
He also encouraged people in houses to become conscious of the dry leaves that can cause fires.