City lacks equipment, operational vehicles, personnel
By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The recent fires in Bacolod City exposed several problems currently plaguing the city’s Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) with Fire Marshal, Fire Chief Inspector Publio Ploteña, admitting a lack of firefighting equipment, such as a dedicated tanker truck, which could be used to resupply water to fire trucks.
He added, while the city is currently equipped with 11 fire trucks, eight of which are operational, in order to attain a proper ratio of one fire truck for every 20,000 people, the local BFP would need 17 functioning trucks.
The BFP official also pointed out a personnel shortage. With currently 82 employed, they still need an additional 200 to be fully-staffed.
Meanwhile, Ploteña said the aforementioned issues had previously been brought up during the Bacolod City Peace and Order Council meeting earlier this month, where Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, various city government departments, and non-governmental organizations pledged support.
Earlier this week, the Bacolod City BFP faced concurrent fires in Barangay 2’s Purok Cagaycay and at a grocery store in Barangay Handumanan. The incidents left the local department stretched thin as resources were not sufficient to tackle both incidents at the same time.
Ploteña earlier explained, they were forced to respond to Barangay 2 first as that blaze was considered a “huge threat” to human life. Afterwards, once a ‘fire out’ was declared in Purok Cagaycay, they immediately returned to Barangay Handumanan and resumed firefighting operations./DGB, WDJ