Metro Dagupan’s disastrous fire station
THE fire that razed a major part of the Bugnay Commercial Center to the ground a month ago causing loss of P50 million property and death to one man, should be wake-up call for booming Dagupan City and its grossly inadequate fire-fighting station. The brutal fact that the fire took place just s tone’s throw from the fire department further tresses the utter inadequacy of city’s fire-fighting brigade.
For a city, like Dagupan, having a limited area where high-rise establishments are compelled to stand dangerously close to one another, including residential and boarding houses, there is crying need to upgrade the fire department and enable it to respond effectively to fires in the crowded city.
Fire Senior Inspector Jesus Orpilla has, for instance, complained that his fire station has only two operational fire trucks with stored capacity of 1,500 gallons each — too inadquate they need refilling after only from 10 to 15 minutes of battling the fire.
Sual and Bugallon, which are non-cities, are better equipped because they have super-tankers capable of storing up to 14,000 gallons of water. It was the timely arrival of fire-trucks from adjacent towns that prevented the Bugnay fire from spreading.
Even some non-government firms in the city, like the Chinese-operated Panda, USATV and Tony’s Lumber have more modern trucks than the Dagupan Fire Station. How utterly embarrassing!
Ladder-type trucks, Orpilla says, are what the city urgency needs in addition to the super-tankers.
With the rash of fires hitting Metro Manila recently, it’s about time that the Dagupan Fire Station began flexing its muscles to avert a fiery entry into the incoming new year.
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