Firemen placed on full alert for New Year's Day

MANILA, Philippines - As the country prepares to welcome the New Year tonight, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has placed the Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP) personnel in full alert status.

 

BFP officer in charge Chief Superintendent Ariel Barayuga said that all BFP personnel are expected to be at their respective fire stations and with available equipment on the ready, prepositioned if necessary, to respond to any emergency.

 

Before Christmas, the BFP-DILG earlier launched "Oplan Paalala: Iwas Paputok, Sakuna at Sunog."

 

All fire stations were likewise directed to conduct a series of fire safety inspections on business establishments, malls, and facilities engaged in the manufacture, selling of firecrackers and pyrotechnics. All fire stations and offices have also been conducting Ugnayan sa Barangay to enlist the support and cooperation of barangay officials. 

 

To dramatize the campaign slogan of "Iwas Paputok" the BFP distributed "torotot" to the children and parents to remind them of the safest way of celebrating the new year and to discourage the public from using firecrackers and pyrotechnics. 

 

During the conduct of the activity, flyers and posters are distributed to complement lectures and dialogues; and the built-in public address system of firetrucks are being utilized to broadcast fire safety reminders especially on the hazards of the use of firecrackers and other pyrotechnics. 

 

Records show that as of December 28, there were six fire incidents related to firecrackers and pyrotechnics causing a total estimated damage of P10.5 million and injury to three civilians.

 

Meanwhile, the BFP-DILG also announced that it is now on the post qualification stage of its bidding for the procurement of 244 units 1000-gallon capacity  and 225 units 500-gallon capacity firetrucks with a budget of P2.589 billion. 

 

This budget came from a combined 2014 General Appropriations Act of P1 billion while the P1.589 billion came from Special Account in the General Fund or the fire code fees collected from 2010 to 2013.

 

If the bidding will be successful, delivery of 155 units is projected to be on July 2015, while the second delivery of another 155 units will be on October 2015. The last delivery of 159 units will be on January 2016.