Festive season fires put thousands at risk

Officials warn of a high risk of fires across the Philippines, as this predominantly Catholic country begins Christmas celebrations.

 

"We are on heightened alert the whole yuletide season," chief inspector Honee Fritz Alagano, spokesman for the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), told IRIN. "We are doing our best to keep the numbers low this month."

 

In 2009, there were 8,271 fire incidents across the country, an average of about 23 fires each day, but officials expect that number to spike over Christmas.

 

Firecrackers, the excessive use of electricity to power lights and late-night parties mean an increased risk of fire during Christmas festivities, Alagano says.

 

Since 2006, BFP statistics show that fire incidents climb in December, with some 830 reported last December.

 

Vulnerable slums

 

Although there are no official numbers, most fires occur in the half-a-million slum houses of Metro-Manila, Alagano said, many of them made of wood and in close proximity to each other.

 

The UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) says such slums, which host an estimated three million people, have all the ingredients for a fire disaster.

 

"Because they are unplanned, none of them complies with government standards... they just keep extending their makeshift houses," Jeanette Cruz, director of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), told IRIN.

 

Beyond the common everyday fire risks (faulty electrical connections, old appliances, unattended cooking equipment, cigarette butts, and indoor candles), many slum communities rely on "octopus connections", when neighbours share a single electrical outlet, exacerbating the risk of an electrical fire, Cruz says.

 

"If fire breaks out in these areas, there is little that can be done," Alagano said. "The houses are mostly made of light or makeshift materials. They are built so close to each other... it can spread so fast. During firefighting operations, the fire trucks can't enter."

 

Call for urban planning

 

The risk underscores a longstanding need for better urban planning in this growing and increasingly urbanized society. 

 

"It's crucial that the government address the problems of slum areas before a disaster hits us," architect and environmentalist Felino Palafox Jr. told IRIN.

 

Fire-prevention should be government's priority, especially because it also usually follows earthquakes, he said.

 

Palafox estimates that about 25 percent of Metro Manila's two million structures are unsafe and is lobbying the government for infrastructure investments and preparedness training to mitigate destruction caused by disasters each year.

 

And while the national government has put standards in place, HUDCC's Cruz says local authorities need to be better at implementing them.

 

Meanwhile, BFP can only train communities to prepare. "We hold regular fire safety lectures. We can't force them to buy fire extinguishers because they can't afford that. But we make them keep buckets of water in their homes. They can use them in case of fires," Alagano said.

 

The BFP local fire stations will be on 24-hour shift monitoring danger areas, streets and highways over the holiday period. 

 

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