Killer fires

That was a grievous Christmas tragedy in Davao City, and unfortunately it’s not going to be the last of the major killer fires in our country.

Lax enforcement of fire safety rules and weak compliance are aggravated by the inadequacy of firefighting capabilities even in mega cities.

Across the country, there are simply too many structures to check for fire safety compliance and too few inspectors. The general attitude is that no sane person wants an office or a home destroyed by fire and no one especially wants to see a relative, friend or employee dying in a conflagration. So people are expected to take the necessary precautions against fires, since they will be the biggest losers in case disaster strikes.

At least two comprehensive studies in the recent past indicated that one of the biggest problems we can expect in case the West Valley Fault moves and Metro Manila is finally shaken by the so-called Big One is the spread of killer fires.

The government has acquired new fire trucks, including mini units that can enter narrow streets in the crowded mega city. Volunteers from the private sector also have more trucks on standby.

But firefighting resources are still inadequate, especially in containing chemical fires, as we saw in the blaze that raged for a long time at the Kentex slipper factory in Valenzuela in 2015.

It’s been 13 years since the teenage daughter of then speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and wife Gina died in a fire at their home in Dasmariñas Village, Makati just days before Christmas. Firefighters in Makati, one of the country’s richest municipalities (it’s now a city), reportedly lacked the equipment to break the fortified windows on the second floor to rescue the girl in time.

Since then there has been an effort to upgrade firefighting capability, but the resources are still not enough. I once watched firefighters up close dousing a fire in a small bungalow that housed sporting goods. It took about four hours to declare the fire out, and by that time the house had been razed.

Firefighting capability is even more inadequate for high-rises. Our firefighters lack extension and aerial ladders, fire-resistant apparel, fire axes and substances to contain chemical fires.

Some owners of commercial buildings may also take fire safety for granted. A survivor of the Davao fire said on TV last night that they did not hear the fire alarm on the fourth floor of the NCCC shopping mall, which was occupied by the SSI call center. The mall operator has insisted that the building had sufficient fire exits.

* * * Putting out fires in residential areas in densely crowded urban centers can be just as complicated. Until about two decades ago, we could still see firefighters in Metro Manila standing on rooftops and using buckets of water to put out fires.

Such scenes were common in slum areas where fire trucks could not squeeze into alleys and where the shanties, built condominium-style to maximize land use, could not be reached by water hoses.

Not surprisingly, the buckets were never enough. Slum settlements were almost always decimated before a “fire out” was officially declared.

As predictable as the almost complete destruction is the swift return of the affected residents. House demarcation lines and makeshift posts are installed as soon as the fire is out. Some months ago when a fire gutted an old building serving as a squatter tenement near our office in Manila, affected residents scrambled to install the markers even amid still smoldering embers, for fear that someone else would claim their space.

Those spaces don’t come free. And tenement rent in Manila’s Port Area, Tondo and Divisoria is not cheap because the shanties are located close to jobsites and livelihood opportunities. I’ve been told that a shanty room of about five square meters can cost from P1,500 to P2,000 a month. Bed space can be P600 to P800.

And who’s the landlord? Usually, the folks who are mandated by law to stop squatting: barangay officials.

If barangay officials are doing their job, in coordination with the police, you won’t see makeshift homes perched precariously (and conveniently for shanty sanitation requirements) along riverbanks and other waterways where squatters risk being carried away by floods.

Barangay officials who perform their duties as mandated by law will also not allow informal settlements to mushroom under their noses, with the alleys so narrow the former country director of the World Bank, a tall Dutch man, had to walk sideways to reach an open area in a Pasay neighborhood for a dialogue with cash transfer beneficiaries.

Those alleys are firetraps. They are death traps, like locked or missing fire exits and factories where chemicals are carelessly handled.

After the Christmas accident at the Davao mall, we are sure to see more killer fires.

* * * RESIGNATION: The Davao fire reportedly contributed to the decision of Paolo Duterte to quit as city vice mayor. Maybe he thinks younger brother Sebastian has it better: the girls, the peace of mind from the absence of controversies.

It’s too late for Paolo Duterte to follow the lifestyle of his brother Baste. Whether Paolo will get a respite from controversies through his resignation remains to be seen. You can’t stay away from public scrutiny if you’re the President’s son.

Unconfirmed stories of President Duterte having heated exchanges with his eldest son have dogged the vice mayor, even before Paolo was dragged into the smuggling of shabu from China valued at P6.4 billion through the Port of Manila.

Paolo’s sister Sara is still Davao mayor and their father goes home every weekend, so the family remains firmly in control of the city government, regardless of who sits as vice mayor. So Paolo isn’t getting much sympathy from his critics led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who dismissed the resignation as “BS” pure and simple.