No tall bldgs because BFP is short?

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is said to be considering height limits on new buildings. This is supposedly to allow better chances of rescue in case of fire or other emergencies, knowing the limited capabilities of firefighting equipment in handling highrise incidents. Actually, the concern of Osmeña for the safety of people is laudable. If only his plan is the right measure.

There is no firefighting equipment anywhere in the world that is capable of reaching the highest of heights. But this has not stopped buildings everywhere from trying to outdo one another in reaching for the skies. At the time of their completion in 1973, New York's famed Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the world. The lack of access to the top was painfully evident when firefighters struggled to do their jobs one step at a time up the stairs in the September 11 attacks.

Yet this lack of rescue capability and emergency access was never an obstacle in the building of the Twin Towers or in the construction of a new replacement after their collapse. The same shortcoming has not deterred the ongoing global race to fleetingly become the world's tallest building, until an even taller one pops up somewhere in the horizon.

Cebu City will probably never see the day when it can earn such a global distinction. But buildings in the city, as well as in other areas in Metro Cebu, have increasingly become taller. Any self-respecting Cebuano will have to agree that this is an indication of business confidence and growth. And a practical one at that, considering the increasingly limited space for horizontal development.

At present, there is one building that, at 50 stories, is currently the tallest in the city. It is not clear if there are plans by other builders to top that distinction. If nobody builds higher, then that building can keep the honor. More so if Osmeña gets to have his way and puts a cap on building heights. But before he does that, maybe the real experts can fill him in on modern advances in building safety.

To be sure, the Mayor clearly knows already that there are so-called intelligent buildings that boast of the best and most advanced safety features that money can buy. With such things already widely available, it is, at the very least, unfair to sacrifice building heights simply because government firefighting and rescue resources will never be able to match the need for them.

Modern intelligent buildings already have selfcontained emergency measures that are way better than external resources such as government firefighting and rescue equipment. If Osmeña truly feels concern for building safety, the humble suggestion would be for him to impose stringent safety and emergency requirements on all buildings. His operative principle might be that if a builder can build a building as tall as he wants, he surely must be able to afford the best safety features.