Region 11 LGUs told: Set firecracker zone

AS the holiday season draws near, local authorities urged Local Government Units (LGU) in the region, except those that have banned firecrackers, to identify designated areas for firecrackers in line with the Executive Order No. 28 which provides for the regulation and control of the use of firecracker and other pyrotechnic devices.

Police Superintendent Cydric Earl Tamayo, chief of the Regional Civil Security Group, said yesterday that the EO 28 was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last June, which seeks to limit the use of firecrackers in the country which have caused substantial number of firecracker-related injuries and casualties every year.

Since Davao City and Sta. Cruz municipality have firecracker ban, they are exempted from this.

“The lead agency is ang LGU sa EO 28. It is the regulation sa paggamit sa firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices,” Tamayo said. “The President wanted that the EO 28 will address or prevent injuries like before where there are many wounded. So the President said we have to regulate.”

The LGU, down to barangay level will identify the firecracker zone for community fireworks display under the supervision of a “trained person duly licensed by the Philippine National Police.”

Those who will conduct outside the designated zone will be apprehended during the inspection but he said that the pyrotechnic devices may be used outside community fireworks displays or within the residence. According to him, there are already some municipalities who submitted their plans to the Regional Operation Plans Division.

The LGUs, in coordination with the PNP, Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Department of Health (DOH) are in charge of designating the firecrackers zone for community fireworks display. In identifying an area, the owner of the lot should have given his/her formal permission and must must be big enough for the expected radius of the strongest fireworks to be used. A dimensioned plan of the site, indicating the firing area and the exclusion zone, along with a list of fireworks to be used in the display must be submitted together with the designation of the fireworks zone.

A security plan must also be in place to ensure that spectators will not have access to the exclusion zone and a copy of the security plan must be submitted along with the designation of the fireworks zone.

The site must be free from flammable materials such as tall, dry grass, fuel, and fuel containers, among others, and the site must have unrestricted access to first aid responders. JCR