EDITORIAL – Preemptive steps vs fire incidents

In one of the biggest fires to hit Cebu City this year, a blaze swept through Barangay Ermita Monday morning and killed three children. Two of the victims were sleeping on the second floor of their house when a kerosene stove exploded and caused the conflagration.

At least 262 houses were razed by the fire, which destroyed a large portion of sitio Kawit and rendered more than 80 families homeless. One of the victims was Ermita barangay captain Mark Miral, who said he did not notice his house was already burning as he was busy putting out the fire in the other side of the sitio.

Since January, the city has been hit with several fires, gutting hundreds of houses and turning millions worth of properties into ashes. However, the latest fire turned out to be a deadly one with three children losing their lives.

Every time a fire breaks out and causes massive damage in a certain area, local authorities would then scramble to find measures to prevent another incident from occurring. As usual, one of the problems they would find is the lack of fire hydrants.

Aside from fire hydrants, narrow roads in populated areas are also giving headache to authorities as they would always have a hard time responding to a fire. In the case of the Ermita incident, Mayor Tomas Osmeña is seeking for the re-blocking of sitio Kawit so roads can be widened for easy access during emergencies.

However, taking action only after the occurrence of fire should not be the case. City officials should learn to take preemptive steps against fire and other incidents to save lives and properties. For instance, there is a need for them to inspect populated areas prone to fire to see which corner should need new fire hydrants and widened streets so firefighters and rescuers could have easy access.