Boarding houses top fire hazards

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY — Around 90 percent of the boarding houses and apartments in this mountain resort city were found to be fire hazards when the Bureau of Fire Protection conducted surprise inspections in the weeks leading to the opening of classes Tuesday.

Senior Supt. Richard Villanueva, Baguio City fire marshall, said violations of boarding houses and apartments included inadequate fire exits, absence or inadequate first aid kits and fire-fighting equipment, no emergency lighting and poor housekeeping.

Under the Fire Code of the Philippines, it is mandatory for structures, especially in urban centers, to have two fire exits which are remote from each other to provide alternate exits in case the fire emanates from one of the location of the prescribed exits.

The Baguio Fire Department started its routine inspection and assessment of boarding houses and apartments in time for the opening of classes in order to ensure that the safety of the students who will be occupying the said structures will be guaranteed by the landowners.

The fire official said emergency lights are part of the fire safety measure because its absence will cause undue panic among the inhabitants of the place in case of fire as they will not be able to find the exit immediately when they want to escape from the crime scene.

Owners of dormitories found to have been violating the fire safety rules will be reprimanded so that they will initiate the necessary corrective measures in the construction of their structures prior to the processing of their permits to operate their respective businesses in the different barangays.

If the owners will not comply with correction of their discovered violations, Villanueva said the local fire station will recommend to the local government unit closure of the business so that people will be spared from eminent danger.

Villanueva, the deficiencies they discovered in boarding houses are almost the same deficiencies that they were able to uncover in various universities, lodging houses and hotels as well as in hospitals.

The Baguio Fire Department defines a fire hazard establishment as any condition or act that increases the probability of the occurrence of fire incident that could pose a serious threat to life and limb.

Villanueva said he is tasked to look into the design of infrastructure which affects the fire safety compliance of the different establishments, thus, the need to institute appropriate corrective measures prior to the completion of the facilities for public use in order to ensure that people who will be using such structures will be spared from future accidents that could happen.

He said there is a need for the academe to incorporate the study of the fire safety code in the curriculum of the courses that involves the building of infrastructure so that future experts will value the importance of fire safety.