March is Fire Prevention Month in the country, signaling the exit of the cooler winds of the Amihan and marking the start of the hot summer season.
Based on data by the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), March is the month that has one of the most alarming fire incidents in the country. The BFP did not mention “most number” of incidents of fire, so I surmise that the phrase “most alarming fire incidents” means bigger incidents of fire breaking out in densely-populated areas, raising them to the highest alarm (from first to fifth alarms, then graduating to Task Force Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, up to the General Alarm).
Alarming incidents of fire have already occurred in Metro Cebu last month, three in Mandaue City last month and one in Ermita, Cebu City. Four hundred families lost their homes in Ermita last February 6, in a fire that injured five people and razed over 130 houses in sitios Bato, Vendor, and Kastilaan.
In Mandaue City early morning of February 17, a tragic fire hit the residential compound of the Gestopas, killing three members of the family. On the same day that afternoon, 270 families were displaced in Mandaue City when another fire broke out at Almers compound in Barangay Tabok. Another fire broke out in Mandaue in Barangay Ibabao-Estancia on February 29, destroying 320 houses packed in a densely-populated neighborhood and causing P2.4 million in property damage.
These recent fire incidents call to mind projects such as “FireCheck,” one of the scientific and innovative steps undertaken by researchers in the academe to address the problem of community fires. FireCheck is a creation of the Central Visayas Center for Environmental Informatics (CENVI), a research and innovation center based at the University of the Philippines Cebu.
I call it a scientific step because it follows from the well-studied environmental criminology theory. This theory has established that “crime is non-random across time and space, instead clustering in speci?c, predictable ways.”
In a similar manner, experts have concluded that fires, like crimes, “are not uniformly distributed across time and space, and instead occur in a predictable and non-random manner.” By studying the pattern of residential ?res in a community, governments can allocate limited resources for maximum bene?t, and target ?re prevention activities on areas identi?ed as fire prone. (Wuschke, Clare, Garis, 2013)
In this regard, FireCheck, a fire hazard mapping and fire spread simulation project, is an enabler of such maximized resource allocation. It helps local governments undertake fire prevention measures in identified fire-prone areas. It also supports firefighters in quickly and efficiently putting out fires in those areas.
With information from FireCheck’s maps, models, and simulations, local governments and their firefighting departments can improve on or create their pre-fire plan, evacuation plan, and investment and mitigation strategy for each of their barangays.
The project is funded by the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD). Two cities in Cebu have already availed of FireCheck, Mandaue City last year and Lapu-Lapu City last January. But an assessment still has to be made on how these cities are using the tools provided by the project and how they have actually benefited in terms of improving their fire-fighting and fire prevention capabilities.
I hope that more LGUs will avail of this kind of innovation. The face of firefighting and prevention should become more than the sight of parading fire trucks blaring their sirens to signal the start of Fire Prevention Month.