BFP: 29 fire incidents daily

An average of 29 fire incidents have been recorded daily from year 2000 to 2005, destroying property worth P13 million a day, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said yesterday.

BFP chief Director Rogelio Asignado said the bureau has mapped up plans to effect a meaningful reduction in fire occurrences through fire safety propagation and a fire prevention education campaign.

"Part of the plan is to calculate fire safety awareness and fire prevention involvement among our citizenry, particularly at an early age," said Asignado, who pointed out that the program will be launched on March 1, the start of the Fire Prevention Month.

Based on the BFP records, firemen responded to 53,927 fire calls nationwide, or a national average of 29 fire incidents per day.

In terms of damage to property, the estimate is P24.27 billion, or an average loss of more than P13.29 million a day.

The BFP tallied 1,357 deaths and 3,564 injuries.

The reported figures do not include those losses sustained from cancelled business opportunities resulting to unemployment as well as environmental degradation," said BFP spokesman Senior Inspector Renato Marcial.

The record also showed that in 2005 alone, there were a total of 10,728 fire occurrences with estimated damage amounting to P3.27 billion.

Last year, 249 people were killed and 661 were injured.