Fire stations, trucks pledged by Abalos

Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. on Tuesday promised that he will work out in a year the placement of fire stations and fire trucks to 123 local government units that still doesn’t have them.

In a press briefing with Bureau of Fire Protection Director Louie Puracan and other BFP officials, Abalos said since he assumed office, the lack of fire trucks stands at 240 fire trucks. However, they were already able to trim it down to a hundred.

But 123 more far-flung localities still do not have even a fire station.

“That’s why we are talking to local executives in this area to donate or even lend us land for us to build or give them a fire station. Some of them have already been provided with fire trucks that they park anywhere,” Abalos said.

For funding, Abalos said the yearly P1 billion allocated for BFP modernization is not enough to reach the gap and he was able to convince Department of Budget Management Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez to add more for them to acquire the necessary equipment and property.

Puracan, on the other hand, said they have been remitting an average of P3.5 billion a year to the national coffers from fees and permits they have issued. This he said, might help defray the amount they needed to meet the gap mentioned by the secretary.

Puracan said a fire station would need at least 400 square meters and could cost P10 million to construct.

The fire trucks, meanwhile, only have 25,000 gallons on their procurement program. But in municipalities, fire truck with 500-1,000 gallons capacity is enough to respond to any fire incident.