Fire and history

Today is the start of Fire Prevention Month. As one of the warmest months in the Philippines with temperature and humidity reaching their maximum levels throughout the archipelago, there are more fires nationwide this month and thus March was designated as Fire Prevention Month. Fires have always been destructive, and history has several examples to show us:

From 1901 to 1907, 170 fires were reported outside Manila, with 12,142 buildings destroyed by these fires with a loss of more than ?5.7 million in 1902: ?200,000 for Dumaguete; 1904, ?200,000 for Biñan, Laguna; 1905, ?2,000,000 for Cebu City; 1906, ?500,000 for Tacloban, Leyte; and 1907, ?800,000 for Laoag, Ilocos Norte. On December 4, 1902, a fire started in a Chinese store in Dumaguete and many businesses were destroyed. On December 10, another fire started in the Chinese section of Cebu City and destroyed a considerable amount of property. In both fires, the natives looted not only the burning buildings, but also the nearby businesses as well. From August 9, 1901 to June 30, 1907, 893 fires occurred in Manila with a loss of ?2,782,504.80. The total loss from fire in the country from August 1901 to June 1907 was estimated at ?8,500,000. In Cebu, Argao was ravaged by a fire in 1908 which destroyed 24 houses valued at ?5,000. In 1909, a fire started in the house of Roman Quintanar and spread to the houses of Alejandro Ruiz and Jose Saniel, all former gobernadorcillos of Argao, and nine houses burned down, resulting in ?20,000 in losses. Also burned were five Chinese stores and bodegas which amounted to a ?50,000 loss. Alejandro Ruiz’s family also said that one of his daughters, Consuelo, was a casualty of the fire.

In the early 1900s, municipalities in the Philippines made no provision for protection against fires so volunteer fire departments in municipalities without a paid fire department was suggested. The government required the police force of such municipalities and volunteers to enlist to constitute the fire department. The law also required that they conducted drills at least once a week and to have 24 buckets, 12 ladders, 24 bolos, 12 axes, one two-man cross-cut saw, and other apparatus necessary for extinguishing fires. One of the legacies of the Americans, then, was to guarantee that Filipinos took fires seriously and prepared for them.

Many decades later, we see reports that these same issues were not still present, but have become worse. In 2015, two firefighters died after their fire truck crashed in Tarragona, Davao Oriental, when the fire truck’s brakes malfunctioned. Ironically, the crash occurred just hours after Secretary Mar Roxas and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) formally kicked off Fire Prevention Month. In 2017, the Commission on Audit questioned the purchase of defective fire trucks. The BFP replied that since it was underequipped, it decided buy more fire trucks of inferior quality since warranty guaranteed their repair for free!

A 2019 report showed that the BFP didn’t have adequate firefighting equipment and half of their personnel had incomplete personnel protective equipment which put the lives of firefighters at risk. It was further reported that 332 cities and municipalities nationwide lacked fire trucks; of the BFP’s 2,781 trucks, 165 were unserviceable and 97 were undergoing repairs.

Over the year, many fires were left unchecked by these deficiencies. When flames strike multistory structures there are often many casualties due to the slow reaction time brought on by a lack of fire engines and equipment. Factory fires sometimes take longer to put out due to inadequate equipment for putting out chemical flames. Corruption in government plus ineffective leadership have also contributed to these issues. Despite the many lessons history has to teach us, we continue to regard fires only seriously when we are personally affected.