15 towns in Eastern Visayas have no fire stations, says BFP

NO FIREFIGHTERS HERE The island municipality of Maripipi in Biliran province is among 15 local governments in Eastern Visayas without any fire stations. —MARIPIPI MAYOR JOSEPH CANONOY CAINGCOY FACEBOOK

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, Philippines — A total 15 municipalities in Eastern Visayas do not have their own fire stations, putting at risk the lives and properties of their residents, a Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP) official revealed.

Senior Supt. Randy Mendaros, assistant regional director of the BFP, said 12 of these areas are island municipalities. These are Maripipi in Biliran province; Almagro, Daram, Sto. Niño, Tagapul-an, Talalora, and Zumarraga, all in Samar province; and Biri, Lapinig, Rosario, San Vicente and Victoria in Northern Samar.

The other towns without fire stations and fire equipment are Llorente, General MacArthur, and Mercedes, all in Eastern Samar.

Eastern Visayas has 136 municipalities and seven cities in the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran, Northern Samar, Samar, and Eastern Samar.

No lots

The 15 municipalities do not have their own fire stations in the absence of lots, which are supposed to be donated by the local governments, where these can be constructed, Mendaros revealed.

According to Mendaros, the usual practice was for the BFP to build the fire station and provide the equipment on a property donated by the local government unit (LGU).

There were LGUs that were willing to donate lots but in one instance, a property was rejected by the BFP since it was located in a hazard-prone area, he added. In the absence of fire stations in these 15 towns, the nearest fire station must help put out the fire should a fire break in one of these municipalities, said Mendaros.

But because of the distance, the fire trucks were expected to arrive at least 30 minutes at the fire scene and not within the 10-minute ideal response time.

Aside from the lack of fire stations, he revealed there were only 248 firetrucks across the region, 27 of which were not serviceable or under maintenance, while 168 of the 769 fire hydrants across the region were not functioning.

With the approaching Christmas and New Year celebrations, the BFP has lined up activities to prevent fires that sometimes happen during the revelries.

These included information dissemination, which involve a house-to-house campaign, especially in areas considered as “red zones” or where houses mostly made of light materials are located and situated near each other.