Here and There
Sudden fires, blast mayhem greet the New Year
By Gerry Garcia
BARELY days before the count-down reaches the zero hour (12 on the dot between today and tomorrow) we’re getting hotter news about fires suddenly breaking out in rapid succession in various places in the country and the increase in firecracker-caused mayhem expected to break previous records.
The one common cause seen to be behind these sudden fires is the proliferation of pyrotechnical products put on sale even in the malls. Another addition to the already banned 5-star, super lolo and pla-pla, including watussi, is the “boga”, an improvised cannon made from PVC pipes fired by denatured alcohol’s said to be gobbling up sales despite its exorbitant cost and the fact that it’s been banned in many places already.
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We Pinoys are not contented with greeting the New Year with mere torotot and car honkings. Always the radical celebrator, he’d rather welcome the coming New Year with a blast and a bang that could be heard miles away.
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The tragic fires too that razed commercial factories and nearby residential communities not only in Metro Manila but also in the South resulting in deaths and multi-M property destructions . .
. . . should be wake-up call for our over-crowded city of Dagupan. There full-fledged universities sitting close to each other, including a number of maritime schools competing with giant malls and shopping centers are enough indications for our fire management authorities to be on all-time alert.
Have they found time and the need to go around and inspect the teeming student dorms and boarding houses that could not be complying with fire-safety requirements, like setting up convenient fire-exits, and equipping each establishment with requisite fire extinguishers?
One stately residential house at the exclusive Corinthian Gardens in Pasig City was recently hit by a fire because it was not equipped with the needed fire extinguishers.
Many of us don’t remember resolutions we started Year ’06 with that we have not broken yet. It’s time that we start all over again to form newer resolutions that we can’t forget to renege once more.
Wish you all a happier New Year!
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/here-and-there/)
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