EDITORIAL – Waiting for an upgrade

A year ago on Dec. 16, the youngest daughter of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. died in a fire that gutted their home in Dasmariñas Village in Makati. Firefighters did not have the necessary equipment to break into the grilled windows or climb up to the second floor where Kristina Casimira "KC" de Venecia had stayed in a bathroom to escape the flames and suffocating fumes. Firefighters did not have asbestos suits, gas masks, grill cutters or even powerful flashlights to brave the flames and try to save KC.

Those were firefighters in a city where the priciest tracts of real estate in the country are located. Imagine how much worse the situation is for firefighters in poorer cities and municipalities. We have seen enough video footage and photographs of fires to know that our firefighters are pitifully equipped to do their job well. Never mind the asbestos suits, which cost nearly half a million pesos each; many fire stations lack even fire trucks and long ladders. These problems are aggravated by the lack of water in many areas. One particularly pathetic image was that of a firefighter on a rooftop in a burning neighborhood, trying to douse flames with pails of water.

The problem has not been addressed despite the fact that fires claim scores of lives every year and destroy millions of pesos worth of property especially in crowded urban centers. KC’s death highlighted the problem but has so far failed to lead to significant improvements in firefighting capability. The budget simply isn’t there, according to the Bureau of Fire Protection. The best that they can do, BFP officials say, is to raise public awareness of fire prevention measures. Local government inspectors can also see to it that fire safety standards are followed.

Admittedly, there are too many urgent problems battling for funding priority in a government that’s running a massive fiscal deficit. Upgrading firefighting capability, however, can be done gradually. A modest investment in modern firefighting equipment can go a long way in saving lives.