MANILA — The Quezon City government will conduct a massive early education caravan on fire prevention measures beginning next month to provide long-term solutions to fire incidents in the city.
Fire prevention month is annually observed every March nationwide.
In an interview on Wednesday, Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte said it is time to conduct an education caravan to keep the residents informed about fire prevention measures, as well as proper emergency response practices once a fire breaks out.
“We will have a partnership between the Office of the Vice Mayor, the Quezon City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, Meralco (Manila Electric Company), Red Cross, and the Bureau of Fire Protection for the city’s Fire Prevention Education Program,” Belmonte said.
“It’s because we do not want to offer band aid solutions to fire incidents. We have to teach fire prevention measures to our people so our communities can reduce the risk of experiencing this kind of disaster,” she added.
She also cited the recent fire incident in Barangay Manresa where almost 200 families were affected, saying this incident could have been avoided if proper fire prevention measures were applied.
“Through our intensive information dissemination, we will educate our people to be wary of illegal electric connections and to be more cautious of ‘octopus’ wiring and the loading capacity of their outlets because we found out that these usually cause the fire incidents in our city,” Belmonte said.
“We have already identified the 43 top communities that record the most number of fire cases. And we are also considering linking them up with the housing authorities because their communities are at high risk of fire cases. Maybe we can also do something about constructing fire proof houses — or houses at low risk of fire — for them,” she added.
