City fire marshal pushes reblocking

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Fire Marshal William Tacaldo has strongly recommended that an immediate reblocking should be done in densely-populated residential areas to ensure effective fire fighting operations during fire emergency.

Tacaldo made the recommendation yesterday during the meeting of the Police Coordinating Advisory Council (PCAC). According to Tacaldo, narrow access roads or lack of access roads in densely-populated areas remain to be their problem in getting to the fire scene immediately.

Mayor Michael Rama asked Tacaldo to submit a list of priority areas because reblocking cannot be done simultaneously in different barangays. The mayor admitted that the reblocking in residential areas to widen the access roads would result in displacement of several families.

Tacaldo said that one of the reasons why fire fighters are sometimes late to arrive at the fire scene is because of the narrow access road. This prompted Rama earlier to widen T. Villa and F. Villa Streets in Barangay T. Padilla to 10 meters following a huge fire that razed close to 500 houses.

Rama also wants that reblocking shall be implemented in other densely-populated barangays like Suba, Pasil, Lorega-San Miguel, Labangon, Tinago, Duljo-Fatima, Mambaling, and some other barangays. —(FREEMAN)