City Hall forms team to monitor fire hydrants

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Government has formed a monitoring team to check the fire hydrants in the city’s 20 most fire prone-barangays.

 The Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council headed by Ramil Ayuman, through Resolution 64, created a monitoring team to check on the fire hydrants whether or not these are still functional.

 “This August Body in concurrence found the necessity to conduct inventory and monitoring of the active hydrants in the city,” part of the resolution read.

 The City’s Public Information Office also headed by Ayuman reported that Mayor Raymond Garcia already gave a go signal for this initiative.

 The monitoring team will be composed of representatives from the Cebu City Fire Station, Metropolitan Cebu Water District, Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, Barangay-Based Responders of the identified fire-prone barangays, Cebu City Police Office, and the Cebu City Transportation Office.

The team is also tasked “to conduct investigation on the alleged issues on stub-out and NARF (Nestor Archival Rescue and Fire) Brigade.

Ayuman told The Freeman that there has been an issue raised regarding NARF, but he said he will still look into it.

The CCDRMC is also looking at re-painting the hydrants on the roadside, which would be charged under the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund 2025.

The newly-formed team is also expected to lead the creation of a Community Fire Auxiliary Group (CFAG) to the top 20 fire-prone barangays and at the same time capacitate them to strengthen their preparedness against the occurrence of a fire incident within their respective area of responsibility.

The first 20 fire-prone barangays in Cebu City identified earlier are Guadalupe, Capitol, Labangon, Duljo-Fatima, Mambaling, Inayawan, Cogon Pardo, Bulacao, Pob. Pardo, Basak Pardo, Sambag 1 and 2, Lorega, T.Padilla, Tinago, Tejero., Tisa, Punta Princesa, Hipodromo and Talamban.

The training of the auxiliary group will start tomorrow, March 16, in Barangay Mambaling where one of the biggest fire incidents happened in the city this month, so far.