Mindanaotoday.com | NorMin logs 18 fires due to extreme heat
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The onset of dry season was declared by the state weather bureau just a week ago, and yet Northern Mindanao has already recorded 18 grassfires which the Bureau of Fire Protection-10 traced to high surface air temperature.
Engr. Noli dela Rita, BFP-10 spokesperson, disclosed these spontaneous combustion cases in a Meet-the-Press forum in Cagayan de Oro on Wednesday, March 29, as among the 98 fire incidents their firefighters had suppressed within the month.
One of the grassfires occurred last week, when temperatures was at its highest just past noon at a grassy upland area of Carmen village in Cagayan de Oro.
On Tuesday, March 28, the Mindanao office of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) at Molugan, El Salvador City, issued a public advisory that temperature has been rising.
Surface air temperatures have exceeded 33˚ Celcius in many areas in Mindanao within the month, and as high as 40˚ Celcius last March 23, in South Cotabato.
There was no rainfall for three to five consecutive days some areas in Northern Mindanao, the advisory further stated.
In the forum, De la Rita said the BFP-10 has recorded 249 fire incidents since January this year.
Of these, 30 occurred in Cagayan de Oro and nine of these within March – dubbed as Fire Prevention Month.
Fire Inspector Samson Velarde, BFP Cagayan de Oro District spokesperson, said that while their personnel strength has gone up to 299 from just over a hundred years ago, yet this is still below the ideal fireman-population ratio of 1:2,000 – the city’s current population having breached the 800,000 mark.
Velarde said the pandemic, which compelled many to stay at home, could be attributed to the reduction of fire incidents, but maintained that safety consciousness among residents is the result of sustained fire-prevention information campaign.
Incidents of fire incidents in the city dropped 43% to 53% in 2021 and 2022, compared to pre-pandemic level (2019) of 439 occurrences. (MT)
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