EDITORIAL - Weak capability

How long does it take to put out a fire in a medium-sized shopping mall in Metro Manila? In the case of Caloocan City, 24 hours was not enough. As of yesterday afternoon, pockets of flames continued to destroy the top floor of the Ever Gotesco Grand Central shopping mall, although the fire was officially declared to be under control at 11:50 on Saturday night.

It’s not as if the mall is a skyscraper whose top levels cannot be reached for lack of firefighting ladders. The mall has only four floors, and the blaze reportedly started in the ceiling of a shoe stall on the ground floor at 10:30 p.m. Friday.

Firefighters said they were not immediately able to put the blaze under control because mall security guards initially prevented them from entering as the guards tried to put out the fire themselves. Officials of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, which has jurisdiction over the Bureau of Fire Protection, said security guards of large commercial establishments usually have standing orders not to let strangers in during disasters, to prevent accidents and looting. Authorities nevertheless said they are looking into the possibility of arson in the Gotesco fire.

Even with the delay in the response of firefighters, however, 24 hours to contain a fire shows the weakness of Philippine firefighting capability. That weakness was supposed to have been addressed following the horrific death of the 16-year-old daughter of Jose and Gina de Venecia on Dec. 17, 2004. Kristina Casimira or KC was trapped on the second floor of their house in Dasmariñas Village in Makati. Firefighters, lacking tools to break down the window grills and penetrate the bulletproof glass panes, could not save her.

Back then the concern was that if the daughter of the House speaker could not be rescued in a minor fire in one of the country’s richest enclaves, there was less hope for survival in a larger conflagration for the less privileged. Following KC’s death, there was the usual noise about upgrading firefighting capabilities nationwide. The fire at the Gotesco mall, during Fire Prevention Month, is just the latest reminder of how much still remains to be done.