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If only it was not so tragic, the fire that razed the Immaculate Conception Parish Church and its convent in Oslob would show that Fire Prevention Month comes close to being the most comic of all civic observances.
March is the month when public attention is directed to the danger and terrible toll that fires exact from humans, but, if you notice, fires have the queer timing of occurring during this month, mostly in urban centers where there is a large concentration of people using electric appliances. Some people blame accidental fires on the hot season, public inattention or just plain carelessness. Updated statistics have yet to be published, but in recent years we hear of sudden increase in fires happening in the middle of fire prevention month, at a time when avoidance is supposed to be a watchword.
Accidents could still hammer the point of prevention rather than containment, but the significance of such tragedies is only momentarily appreciated. That could well be the reason why government and the private sector rally behind the information drive. Media push this activity every year without fail and I bet many coworkers, especially in the broadcast industry, are able to recite a litany of fire prevention tips from memory. The campaign is being carried out in schools and in government and corporate offices so everybody will know what to do just in case.
With a campaign that virtually ?indoctrinates? the population about the benefits of prevention, one would expect local officials and firemen to be in the peak of preparedness during this month, but this was not the case in Oslob last week.
Asked to account for their failure in putting out the blaze, local firefighters heaped the blame on two defective fire trucks. Interestingly, this problem was highlighted last year when two fires broke out separately in barangays Poblacion and Daanlungsod. Many families were displaced after their houses were razed to the ground because the fire trucks were not in running condition. That should have prompted Oslob town officials to address the problem, but, to this day, Mayor Ronald Guarin evades any responsibility by saying procurement is not simple. What kind of a mayor is he if he can?t guarantee the repair of defective fire trucks?
Oslob?s local executives and firefighters were not only caught unprepared but lacking in alternative strategies as well. This was evident when the fireman on duty, according to news reports, didn?t budge at all after he was alerted by a church worker about the fire. Eventually, townspeople pushed the fire truck in front of the burning church, but by then it was already too late.
Monsignor Achilles Dakay took a swipe at Governor Gwendolyn Garcia?s ?Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo? as a factor in the Oslob fire, implying that the program is futile because Capitol officials were more interested in the lechon rather than in looking into the town?s basic services. He took a lot of flak for these hasty comments because Capitol officials cannot supersede local chief executives in the performance of their duties. Still, it does not mean that the governor is virtually helpless or that local officials are beyond her control because she wields a lot of influence and could very well use it to discipline local officials.
Remember when Governor Garcia walked out of a local beauty contest because she was irked by the sight of young girls clad in barely-there outfits? She angrily told town officials that Capitol would no longer grant assistance for such inane programs. She had no hand in organizing the activity but she put her foot down against shows bereft of any cultural values. It was all said in a moment of pique, but it amounted to a declared policy nonetheless. As a result, some town officials scratched out bikini-open types of distraction in favor of entertainment that underlines homegrown customs and produce.
What happened in Oslob is something that the mayor and the firemen will have to account before the Ombudsman and the people when the proper time comes, but it can be a reference if the governor is looking for approaches on how to deal with inept officials. ?In adversity one finds opportunity,? so the old saying goes.
The fire that burned down the Immaculate Conception Parish Church has also opened up a window for the Cebu Archdiocese to evaluate the conditions of many old churches, not just from the safety point of view but also from the perspective of aesthetics. Oftentimes, we hear of old churches undergoing ?repair? only to find out that the original structure has been torn down to make way for new ones that stand out only for kitsch and tasteless look.
