BFP: Barangay brigades to help suppress fire incidents

THE Cordillera office of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) underscored the importance of the creation of barangay fire brigades in the different parts of the region to help suppress fire incidents in their respective areas of jurisdiction.

Senior Superintendent Maria Sofia Mendoza, BFP-CAR regional director, said barangay fire brigades play a key role in suppressing fire incidents because their members are the first responders.

“We want every barangay to have their own fire brigade so we will have the necessary first responders during reported fire incidents in their barangays. We have to give credit to our first responders because they are the ones that play a key role in firefighting efforts region-wide,” Mendoza stressed.

The BFP-CAR official pointed out members of the barangay fire brigade are the front liners in firefighting efforts before the arrival of firemen and fire trucks in the areas where fire incidents are reported.

Mendoza added if the distance of the fire from the nearest fire station is 15 to 20 kilometers away, fire trucks and personnel could not be in the area within the prescribed seven-minute response time, thus the presence of barangay fire brigades is necessary not only in populated barangays but also in remote villages region-wide.

Mendoza said BFP-CAR personnel will provide the interested members of barangay fire brigades the appropriate training to be an effective and efficient first responders to fire incidents that happen anytime in their places, especially with the onset of summer when fire incidents may happen anytime.

Mendoza urged barangay officials to closely coordinate with the nearest municipal, city or provincial fire stations to signify their interest in organizing or reactivating their barangay fire brigade so that their constituents can be trained as frontline fire responders.

While the BFP-CAR is working out the building of municipal fire stations in the 75 towns and seven provinces of the region, Mendoza claimed it is also important for the barangay officials of the more than 1,000 barangays in the region to tap the services of able-bodied residents as part of their barangay fire brigades to help in suppressing structural or grass fires that may occur anytime in their areas of jurisdiction.

The BFP wants to make sure that all municipalities in the different parts of the region will have their own fire stations in the future once the said local governments shall have donated to the agency the required lots where the fire stations will be constructed for better firefighting in the countryside. (PR)