Phl Firefighters Lack Equipment, Personnel, Fire Trucks

The country's firefighters deal with several challenges every day, responding not only to fire incidents but also natural and man-made calamities.

But aside from external challenges, the men and women of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) also face problems within their organization.

The BFP, with a strength of 25,641 officers and personnel, does not have adequate firefighting equipment and this puts the lives of the firefighters at risk every time they go out in the field.

The bureau's spokesman, Chief Inspector Jude Delos Reyes, bared that 50 percent of their personnel have incomplete personnel protective equipment (PPE). These include helmets and boots.

“The ideal setup is that each of our personnel will have their own PPE but that is not what is happening in our stations,” he said in a phone interview.

The common scene at their fire stations, Delos Reyes disclosed, is that firefighters on the first shift endorse their protective equipment to colleagues in the next shift.

This dilemma is just among the problems that the BFP hopes will be addressed by President Duterte.

The BFP is also short on manpower as it needs at least 11,000  more firefighters to cover the entire country. The lack of manpower is evident during huge fire incidents where they need more warm bodies in the field.

For firefighters working at night, this scenario puts a strain on their health as they have to render extra hours to help extinguish fires.

 There is also an overlapping of schedules as all available personnel should be present during large fires, according to Delos Reyes.

The lack of fire trucks is also another concern for the bureau, which currently only has a fleet of 2,352 units nationwide. Of this number, 2,104 are serviceable, 45 are undergoing repairs while 203 are already unusable.

While most of the fire trucks are still active, Delos Reyes lamented there are some units that are  already old, especially for use in far-flung areas.

“We have units that  have been around for 27 to 30 years, ” the official said.

Most of these old fire trucks are located in Visayas and Mindanao while majority of the new units are in the National Capital Region.

As the stringent  bidding process for the procurement of additional fire trucks takes two to three years to complete, the BFP has to contend with just repairing the units.

But this option is more costly in the long run as the units are bound to fail eventually. Delos Reyes explained the best thing to do is to buy new units to replenish their aging fleet of fire trucks.

The delays in the procurement of new equipment is caused by losing bidders who normally contest their decision granting a project to a winning supplier.

“In every process there are challenges and complaints that we must resolve,” Delos Reyes said.

The situation is different from First World countries such as South Korea and Japan, where the fire trucks are replaced every five years, ensuring they always have updated units.

 Aside from lack of personnel and equipment, the BFP revealed that 304 towns in the country still don’t have fire stations and fire trucks. Ninety-six of these towns are in the impoverished Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The BFP has four fire truck ladders in Metro Manila but these are only capable of reaching structures with only seven floors but not high-rise condominiums, Delos Reyes added.

 Duterte has raised the idea of arming firefighters so they can help fight communist rebels and other lawless elements, a welcome development according to Delos Reyes, as they could also protect themselves when they are on fieldwork.

But before the guns, looks like there are many BFP needs that should be addressed first.