BFP: 332 towns, cities without fire trucks

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 332 cities and municipalities in the country don’t have fire trucks, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said yesterday.

Data from the BFP showed that a majority of the localities still without fire trucks are in the impoverished Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, now the Bangsamoro ARMM, with 96.

Eastern Visayas is second with 26, followed by Central Visayas with 24, Northern Mindanao with 23 and Ilocos and Zamboanga peninsula with 22 each.

All 16 cities and one town in the National Capital Region have fire trucks.

BFP chief Director Leonard Banago said they still have a long way to go before all localities have fire trucks.

“We have a huge discrepancy. If one fire truck is for 28,000 people we would need 3,606,” he told dzMM in Filipino and English.

The bureau has a shortage of 825 units to reach the target as it only has 2,781 fire trucks.

Records of the BFP showed that 165 are unserviceable while 97 are undergoing repair.

Banago said the BFP is expecting the delivery this year of units that they procured in 2018.

He said the new fire trucks are manufactured by Japanese commercial vehicle and diesel engine manufacturing company Isuzu Motors Ltd. and assembled in South Korea.

The trucks have a capacity of 1,000 gallons of water each and equipped with chemical firefighting capability, Banago added.