EDITORIAL - Fire prevention

People are sweltering in the withering heat, rivers are drying up and water levels are approaching critical point in several dams as El Niño promises one of the hottest, driest summers ever. Aggravated by fluctuating electricity, the risk of destructive fires is highest in March, the month that is dedicated to fire prevention.

Last month alone, fires in Metro Manila, Cebu and other parts of the country killed several people and rendered hundreds homeless. In densely populated urban centers, where thousands of people continue to live and work in virtual firetraps, a fire in a small apartment or establishment can have a high death toll. The country’s worst fire, which hit the Ozone disco in Quezon City on March 18, 1996, left at least 162 people dead, most of them students who were trapped in the structure that had no fire exit. Other students have been trapped to death in fires that destroyed rundown wooden dormitories in Manila’s University Belt. Electrical wiring is rarely inspected, even in public places, such as in a decades-old orphanage in Manila where a fire in December 1998 killed over 20 people, most of them children.

Despite such tragedies, fire safety laws continue to be violated or ignored. Last month in Mandaue City, four people, three of them children, died in a fire in a row of apartments that reportedly had no fire exit. Fires break out regularly in slums, and the risk is highest during the summer months. In Mindanao, which is reeling from rotating blackouts of up to eight hours daily, the intermittent power supply could trigger fires in buildings with faulty electrical wiring.

Fires can also hit private homes, even in affluent enclaves. The nation still remembers the death of Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia’s daughter in a fire in their Dasmariñas Village home, which was traced to malfunctioning lights on their Christmas tree. The day after Christmas last year, civic leader Concepcion Guho and her daughter Katrina were also trapped in a fire that hit their East Greenhills home. The two did not survive.

When fire prevention authorities issue guidelines for fire safety, don’t ignore the tips. Accidents can be prevented.