EDITORIAL - Safety requires understanding of limits

Asked in an executive session of the Cebu City Council to describe the fire department's capability in fighting medium- to high-rise building fires, city fire marshall Noel Ababon said "very minimal." He then proceeded to explain his characterization as due to the lack of appropriate gear and equipment. With that, Ababon effectively threw the ball into the city council's court.

Vested with the power over the purse, it is now up to the city council whether it is up to the challenge of meeting this vital shortage. Its importance and urgency could not have been better defined. The members of the council got it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, and in words even those who are not horses can understand. "Very minimal." what can be clearer than that.

And so, in all likelihood, the city council may authorize and fund a gear and equipment procuring spree such as the city may not have seen before. And if there is not enough money to go around to shore up the binge, there are so-called ties that bind Cebu City with other global cities with the wherewithal to help. What is important is for the city to match its expanding skyline with the ability to address emergencies related thereto.

And the city council can very well proceed with little of the anticipated bureaucratic and political resistance that have often characterized legislative and executive relations. The Cebu City mayor, after all, is all for the safety and security of tall buildings. He himself only very recently cracked down on building plans and constructions that have not met the required safety standards.

In other words, Cebu City could be on the threshold of something truly big and great -that of making itself one of the safest cities in the world as far as building safety is concerned. And while buildings make up only a slice of the entire safety pie, that is already quite a load off everybody's plate. And so, while the initiative is hot, pursuing it is a must.

A word of caution, though. There is no such thing as a perfect life. So even if Cebu City gets to acquire everything it thinks it needs and requires to be safe in this day and age of soaring skyscrapers, the technology to be perfect just can never be invented. There will thus be shortcomings that cannot be overcome. Even if we can reach 50 stories, there will always be stories that are beyond reach. It is up to each one, therefore, to define and draw his own limits.