05 Apr Fire Chief warns of a struggle

In recent weeks two huge fires have hit densely populated areas of Mandaue City in The Philippines but a fire chief has now warned his force could struggle to react quickly to further blazes.

Around one hundred houses were burned down in late Feburary in Barangay Basak displacing 400 residents  then at the end of March another 12,000 people were left homeless and 2,000 houses destroyed by a blaze in Barangay’s Mantuyong and Guizo district.

It then emerged that Mandaue City fire station had lost their only hotline numbers for people to phone and report fire outbreaks because of unpaid bills.

It was reported that the City’s government had the hotline dsconnected and stop paying for it because it is in the process of activating a new internet based telephone system for all of its offices.

Talking about the disconnected line City Fire Marshall Joel Abarquez said “ It was the number printed on the leaflets that we distributed during the launching of fire prevention month.”

He added that the new number would not go through direct to his staff which could cause delays before alarm calls reach them.