CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – “Firefighters are, by the very nature of their work, heroesand therefore deserve more
than lip service recognition but our total support.”
Thus said Gov. Lilia G. Pineda on Monday during the induction of officers of the FireArson Investigation and Inspection
Course, Class Number 2005-01 at the BenignoAquino Hall here.
Pineda backed her word with the commitment to source out funds for equipment, facilities and training of firefighters from some P100-million in the provincial government’s calamityfund.
“It is truly lamentable how our fire inspectors go about their pre-emptive job of keeping our communities safe from fires, lacking in basic equipment, even in transport facilities,” the governor said, looking at the possibility of providing the municipal fire stations with vehicles primarily for fire safetyinspections of local establishments.
Pineda likewise raised the need for barangay halls to be equipped with basic fire control tools as fire extinguishers, axes, water hoses, and the like, as well as organizedfire-fighting volunteers.
“Our first responders are in the barangays, thus both officials and folk alike need the equipment and training in firefighting,” Pineda said, citing as a case-inpoint the fire in Barangay Sto. Cristo, Guagua town that razed some 60 houses to the ground and killed a 1-year-oldbaby.
“Kung meron tayong nakahandang responders sa barangay, maaring hindi ganoon ka-grabeang nangyari,” Pineda
mused.
The governor said the Capitol with the local government units will undertake “action planning”with the Bureau of Fire
Protection to strengthen coordination and inter- operability in theirfirefighting operations.
This, even as she committed herself to take the “cause of the BFP” to the Regional Development Council saying the agency has been left behind in “capability-building and modernization” due to lack of equipment, fire trucks and other itemsessential to firefighting.
