RAZED BY FIRE. The aftermath of the fire, which hit 15 houses in Barangay 16, Bacolod City, on Aug. 1, 2024. As of Aug. 4, the Bureau of Fire Protection has identified 195 fire-prone areas or red zones in most of the 61 barangays in the city. (Photo courtesy of Bacolod City PIO)
BACOLOD CITY – Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said on Monday that he will form a task force to monitor and develop plans to mitigate fire incidents after two instances here last week razed 96 houses and caused the death of purok (sub-village) official.
“We met with our fire marshal (Supt. Jenny Mae Masip) this morning. We had a meeting, together with the concerned departments, on what happened. There were two fire incidents --in Barangay 2 and Barangay 16,” he said.
Benitez said these locations are among those considered fire-prone areas or red zones that are hard to reach with no regulations for fire safety.
“In both cases, we found deficiencies during the response. We are planning to rectify those. Part of our strategy to prevent fires is to identify what we call red zones,” he added.
In red zones, mainly occupied by informal settlers, houses are made of light materials and stand very near each other.
As of Aug. 4, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)-Bacolod has identified 195 fire-prone areas or red zones in most of the 61 barangays in the city.
In these areas, 57,798 families, comprising 170,143 individuals, occupied 48,467 houses.
BFP-Bacolod data from January to July this year showed that of the 192 fire incidents in red zones, 77 or 40.10 percent are residential fires, whose top three causes include electrical ignition, unattended cooking, and overheated home appliances.
Benitez said the city will provide 10 units of mobile phones to the Bacolod City Fire Station to improve the response time.
“Those calling for response will no longer have to call through landline,” he said.
The mayor said there should be alarm and communication systems in place in each purok for more efficient coordination with fire responders and a standard operating procedure (SOP) for crowd control.
“The fatality in Barangay 16 went back to his house. It was too late when he went out; he was trapped. The SOP should be when there is fire, no one should be allowed to go back to his or her house,” he added. (PNA)
