60 towns have no fire trucks, stations

TACLOBAN CITY—At least 60 municipalities in Eastern Visayas don’t have fire-fighting capabilities.

They neither have fire stations nor fire trucks, according to officials of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Eastern Visayas.

Fire Officer 3 Fernando Mandia, BFP information officer in Eastern Visayas, said if a fire hits one of these towns, they would have to rely on other towns that have fire stations.

Otherwise, he added, these towns would have to use “bucket brigades,” or residents carrying buckets of water to fight the fire.

Of the 60 towns, 16 were in Samar, 13 in Eastern Samar, 11 in Leyte, nine in Southern Leyte, eight in Northern Samar and three in Biliran.

All of these towns were in the list of the poorest areas in Eastern Visayas and don’t have funds to buy fire trucks or build fire stations.