ILOILO City – With the holiday season over, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Region 6 downgraded its “full alert” status to white alert.”
Now, fire bureau personnel could take their day-off, said Fire Chief Inspector Melanie Habawel, chief, Operations Division, BFP Region 6.
When the bureau was on “full alert” (Dec. 23, 2018 to Jan. 1, 2019) its personnel were required to work round the clock and, among others, inspect firecracker zones (designated areas for selling firecrackers).
There were no firecracker-related fire incidents in Western Visayas during the 2018 holiday season, according to the bureau.
During the 2017 holiday season, the bureau recorded two fire incidents in the provinces of Aklan and Antique, said Habawel.
BFP’s holiday season monitoring was from Dec. 1, 2018 to Jan. 1, 2019.
“We are happy to say na-zero naton ina,” said Habawel. “Buot hambalon epektibo ang aton kampanya sa safe nga paggamit sang firecrackers.”
Helping the BFP in the campaign were the Philippine National Police and Department of Health.
There was one fire incident in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental on Jan. 1 but it was not firecracker-related so it was not counted, said Habawel.
The damage reached P30,000.
On Jan. 2 in this city, fire totally gutted a house in Barangay Compania Central, Molo district.
Properties worth around P300,000 all went up in smoke, according to fire investigators.
The house was owned by the 47-year-old Susana Mesa and was rented by Rosavella Lazo.
According to witnesses, Lazo and her helper were having coffee at around 8:30 a.m. when they saw the blaze from the back of the house.
The fire quickly spread – the reason Lazo and her helper ran without bringing with them any items like clothes and their cellular phones./PN
