Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella called for a meeting next Tuesday with building administrators, owners and fire department officers about the increasing number of high-rise buildings in the city.
“With 40 t 50 story buildings, we have to admit that we don’t have sufficient fire-fighting equipment,” he said.
Labella cited Horizons 101, a 59-story building at Gen. Maxilom Avenue, Cebu City. Labella said he wanted to know if building owners have their own fire-fighting equipment and contingency plans to deal with fires or other calamities. Arial ladeers of Cebu city’s fire department only reach six floors.
“We have to admit that supertyphoon Yolanda and the earthquake was a wake-up call that we are a calamity-prone community,” he said.
He said fires that broke out in the past months were put out quickly with the cooperation of barangay volunteers and volunteer fire brigades from the private sector. Labella said most of the deaths weren’t caused by fire but by smoke inhalation./UP Cebu Intern Mary Claire U. Catado