No Baby talk On fire March 15, 2015—I was trying to cover the fire on Burgos Street. The experience was an awakening.
When I arrived on the site there was a fairly huge blaze that was just consuming around three houses and in no time electrical lines were ablaze, too. In five seconds, there was a stampede and people pushed their way out of the inferno as wires sparked like fireworks on an electrical post.
It was like a scene straight from an action-thriller movie and I was the one person going against the tide of people running their way out.
After several years of being a community journalist here in San Carlos and having witnessed more than a couple of fire incidents, the decisive factor every time is people—people who respond to the emergency in a number of (some shocking) ways.
On-lookers. What struck me straight in the gut was the number of on-lookers any fire incident could gather in a matter of seconds. This same throng, defiantly consist of mothers, elders, children and yes, even babies, makes it difficult for fire trucks to easily navigate through the streets and position at the most convenient spot.
Often, as in the case of the Burgos fire, a fireman or volunteer had to get off the truck and play traffic aide to push the people out of the way. This useless maneuver eats up precious minutes and greatly hampers the job of firemen during an incident.
What was worse on Burgos Street was the fact that there were uniformed (on-duty) policemen who have just hopped off the mobile patrol car who just stood there watching the tragedy of fire tongues licking houses as if they didn’t have a duty to control the crowd. They just stood there ape-faced, eyes wide watching and watching, not even exercising their authority to push back and clear the area of the dumb crowd.
One solution I see is that together with the barangay tanods our police officers should be trained and obligated to control the crowd during every fire incident so that no policeman should ever stand there oblivious to all events except gaze at the image of a fire. And, so that, fire response teams do not have to waste minutes as they position themselves strategically to fight the fire.
Helpers. There were only three houses that were razed to zero on Burgos Street as opposed to the almost 40 count at Caballero Subdivision. People again made the difference.
On Burgos, residents whose houses were threatened by the fire immediately initiated the bucket brigade while getting water from an opened water stub-out. The men formed a line big and small buckets in hand and proceeded to throw water in random at the house on fire while also drenching the house next to it while the flames haven’t yet reached it. Their effort paid well. The fire did not reach the other house, it got contained to only three units, at least.
Back in January 2013 when a noontime blaze sent Endrina Street into cinders, the bucket brigade helped save our house. Those emergency volunteers were able to kill the fire that was already on the ceiling of the house beside ours.
This same element was apparently missing during the Caballero fire. Almost all houses in the block were are consumed when a small group proceeded to form a bucket brigade line. It was a mere piteous effort versus the mammoth of a damage the fire has already left.
Volunteers. San Carlos City is replete with volunteer groups but it is totally unclear to me how they are supposed to work in tandem with the city’s official fire fighting team. I myself encountered groups with volunteers who do not even know how to correctly haul a fire hose out of the truck. There are volunteers who arrive on the site in full battle gear but like supervisors, who do not even know what to dictate their subordinates, they merely placed hands on hips and contented themselves by pacing back and forth.
They add to the thickening throng on the scene but their contribution is a little blurry.
While there are volunteers who barely have the appropriate footgear but bravely tackle the fire head-on. Is this a matter of attitude or a matter of training and coordination and the lack thereof?
Many are the fire incidents that have questioned the ability and qualification of our fire fighters. And it is true that critics seem to not have one good thing to say about the men and women who lay their lives on the line during a fire incident. Ah! People! Firefighters, volunteers and policemen need to prove themselves every time but I can just laugh at the reasons why they fail to please every time.
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Tidbits. I overheard that a city councilor is now planning a city-wide fire hydrant system. We shall see what comes of that brilliant idea. And, I just hope that our fire trucks would then be equipped with the necessary pipe wrenches to open up hydrants to save by-standers’ efforts of forcing it open using boulders.
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