The Mandaue Fire Station lost its hotline due to unpaid telephone bills. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
If another fire breaks out today in Mandaue City, you can no longer call the city’s fire department hotline to report a fire alarm.
The Mandaue City Fire Department’s (MCFD) hotline number, which has been used by the MCFD for years, has been disconnected for about a week now allegedly due to unpaid bills, Mandaue City Fire Marshall Joel Abarquez said yesterday.
Abarquez said he thought the city government, which was responsible for maintaining the fire department’s phone line, was just delayed in processing the payment for the hotline (344-4747), the reason why it was disconnected. But he said he later learned that it was due to the unpaid bill of about P2,000.
“Mga usa pa hinuon ka semana nga wala na’y connection. Mao ra ba to nga number ang naa sa among gipanghatag nga leaflets during sa launching sa fire prevention month (in March),” said Abarquez. (It has been a week since we lost our phone connection. It was the number printed on the leaflets that we distributed during the launching of the fire prevention month.)
It turned out that the city government actually had the line disconnected and stopped paying for it because it intends to activate a new Internet-based telephone system for all city government offices, including the MCFD, whereby all calls will pass through a trunk line that will in turn connect calls to concerned departments.
Roger Paller, the city’s public information officer, said the city’s residents will not just need to dial “160” if they have emergencies and the command center and the representatives of the fire, police, rescue and traffic departments who are assigned at the center will be the ones to inform their respective offices.
But Abarquez said he was not informed that City Hall is activating a new telephone system. He also did not know that all the city government’s phone lines with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) have been disconnected.
Abarquez said it would still be best for the fire department to have alternative phone lines.
“Ang 160 dili man direct namo mao nga posible malangan pa before maabot sa amoa kay radyohan ra man mi nila (The 160 is not direct to us, that’s why it’s possible there will be delays before the alarm reaches us because they still have to pass on the information to us through radio),” said Abarquez.
In the meantime, he said, anyone who wants to report a fire emergency, will just need to dial 160. By next week, however, Abarquez said they will assign an office phone, which is currently used for administrative operation, as a temporary hotline. The numbers are 417-2025.
Abarquez, meanwhile, warned people to be vigilant as the heat could still surge, based on recent advisories from the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).
This means, he said, that people should not be complacent, particularly with just throwing anywhere a lighted cigarette butt, as fires could break out anytime. He noted that in the last week alone, the city fire department has responded to three grass fires in the city.
Between February and March, two major fires had hit Mandaue City, displacing over ten thousand people.
The Feb. 22 fire in Barangay Basak burned down about a hundred houses and displaced over 400 residents while the fire that hit Barangays Mantuyong and Guizo on March 22 razed to the ground over 2,000 houses and displaced nearly 12,000 people.
Those affected by the March 22 fire are still being housed at the grounds of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).