The Bureau of Fire Protection in Dumaguete is seeking additional fire hydrants to improve their response time during fire callouts.
Fire Chief Insp. Marlon Chomling, city fire marshal, said in an interview on Thursday that the 54 fire hydrants spread across the city are not enough to cover fire incidents should they break out simultaneously.
“We are requesting the local government unit for four additional fire hydrants to be established in Barangays Looc, Taclobo, Bagacay, and Piapi, which are fire-prone,” Chomling said.
Additional fire hydrants would mean reducing response time and being able to penetrate areas that are difficult to reach or are densely populated, he said.
Allen Cabaron, head of the City Disaster Risk- Reduction & Management Office, assured they would help source out funds for the additional hydrants.
Cabaron said each hydrant could cost P200,000 or more.
Currently, the CDRRMO budget has already been allocated for other purposes but Cabaron said he would recommend to the Office of the Mayor to source funds through the Local Finance Committee.
Meanwhile, Barangay Looc chairperson Inna Luzada said they would purchase a fire truck from the money they won during a recent cultural festival competition.
Looc is a densely populated area with hundreds of informal settlers occupying the coastal area as their main source of income comes from the nearby city
Chomling, meanwhile, expressed alarm over the continued rise in the number of fire incidents in the province during the first quarter of the year.
The Province has recorded 64 fire incidents, structural and non-structural, since Jan. 1st, according to Supt. Noel Nelson Ababon, provincial fire marshal, during a forum hosted by the Philippine Information Agency.
Of the number, structural fires totaled 30, while non-structural fires totaled 34 as of March 5, Ababon said.
In 2023, the BFP responded to 222 fire incidents, with a monthly average of 18.
Ababon said the ongoing El Niño was one of the major factors that contributed to the high incidence of fire.
“This is now alarming but we have to consider El Niño this year, a factor that could have contributed to the rise in fire incidents due to the extreme heat brought about by the phenomenon,” he said in Cebuano.
Ababon said the most common cause of the fire was electrical, although some were ignited by open flame.
Many cases this year are still under investigation as fire investigators are given 45 days to determine the cause of a fire, he said.
Another factor that heightened fire risks is flammable items in homes, such as furniture made out of synthetic materials, he added.
The Provincial Fire Marshal said he is hopeful that with various interventions, the number of fire incidents in Negros Oriental will be fewer than last year.
The BFP here is already implementing the Community Fire Protection Plan in every barangay, with one fire personnel assigned in each village.
Chomling also identified at least nine barangays that are ‘fire-prone’, usually due to dense populations.
These are the barangays of Bagacay, Looc, Calindagan, Bajumpandan, Banilad, Bantayan, Piapi, Daro, and Talay, Chomling said.
The city fire chief disclosed they are proposing to establish sub-stations, especially in outskirts barangays to cut down on response time.
He admitted that the current fleet of 34 fire trucks in the Province is not enough if fire callouts happen simultaneously. (Judy F. Partlow/PNA)
