Deficiency of resources encounteredbyBureauof Fire

Protection

Executive Summary

Bureau of Fire Protection is in charge of maintaining public safety by preventing and/or

suppressing all destructive fires on structures such as buildings, homes, and other similar

structures, forests, land transportation vehicles and equipment, ships/vessels docked at piers,

wharves, or anchored at major seaports, and petroleum industry installations.

Currently our BFP facing a problem on deficiency on the lack of personal protective

equipment, during their operation, they are also still lack of man power, and the another concern

of the bureau is the shortage of fire trucks. This problems is widely affects the operation of our

fire fighters in responding in time of fire incidents or natural and man-made disaster.

Government needs to provide this deficiency of resources of our Bureau of Fire Protection

in order for them to be able to do their job better and also they can able to respond easily to the

disaster that will happened in our country, this advocacies will be a to better way protect people's

lives and their property.

Introduction
Every day, firefighters in our country face a variety of threats, including not only fires but also

natural and man-made disasters. However, apart from external challenges, the Bureau of Fire

Protection (BFP) also faces internal issues. The BFP, which has a strength of 25,641 officers and

staff, lacks proper firefighting equipment, putting firefighters' lives in danger every time they

head out into the field. Chief Inspector Jude Delos Reyes, the bureau's spokesperson, revealed

that 50 percent of the bureau's employees are without personal protective equipment (PPE).

Helmets and boots are among them. (Onenews.ph,2019).

The BFP still lacks manpower, requiring at least 11,000 additional firefighters to serve the

entire country. The shortage of manpower is apparent during large fires, when more warm bodies

are needed on the scene, this situation places a burden on firefighters operating at night, as they

must work additional hours to help extinguish fires. There is also an overlap in schedules, as all

available staff should be present for major fires. Another source of concern for the bureau is the

shortage of fire trucks, which currently number 2,352 across the country. While the majority of

the fire trucks are still operational, Delos Reyes lamented that some are already outdated,

especially for use in far-flung areas. They have fire trucks that have been in operation for 27 to

30 years, with the majority of the older units located in Visayas and Mindanao, and the majority

of the newer units in the National Capital Region (Onenews.ph,2019).

Body

The first fire protection agency in the Philippines was founded by the Americans in Manila in

1901 and was known as the Manila Fire Department, which eventually became the model for all

later nationwide fire (History of BFP, 2021).

 The Bureau of Fire Protection was formed from the units of the

Philippine Integrated National Police's Office of Fire Protection Service on January 29, 1991,

through a law named Republic Act 6975 creating the present Interior Department and placing the

fire service under its control. The enactment of Republic Act 6975, otherwise known as the

Department of Interior and Local Government Act of 1990 which took effect on January 1, 1991

paved the way for the establishment of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire

Protection (BFP) and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) as separate entities.

Specifically, the Fire Bureau’s charter was created under Chapter IV (Section 53 to 59) and

carried-out through the provisions of Rule VII (Sections 49 to 58) of the Implementing Rules and

Regulations of the said law (R.A. 6975 lawphil.net, 2014).

Around half of the Bureau of Fire Protection's (BFP) firefighters do not have a full

collection of personal protective equipment.Helmets and boots are among the products,

respirators, gloves, blankets, and gas masks are also provided as PPEs.One of the issues they are

hoping the new government will solve is the shortage of protective equipment (Tupas, 2019).

According to the CommisionOf Audit (COA) 2018.The actual roster of 23,030

firefighters is less than half of the optimal number of 50,490 firefighters. The BFP has asked for

a larger budget in order to employ at least 10,000 additional people.Aside from a lack of

manpower, state auditors discovered that the BFP only has 2,350 operational fire trucks

throughout the country, falling short of the standard of one fire truck per 28,000 residents. The

Philippines should have had at least 3,608 fire trucks, according to government data.

The main purpose this case study is aims to upgrade the government’s firefighting

capability with adequate personnel and equipage in order to safeguard the populace from the

hazards of destructive fires. It also to address the government about the deficiency of the
resources of our Bureau of Fire Protection in Philippines, and to expressed to the people that

despite of the lack of resources of our firefighters in our country they still serve us in different

calamities not only on of fire as well as any disasters that are natural or man-made.

Recommendation

Base on the problem faced by our Bureau of Fire Protection in this case study, the following are
recommended:

*The BFP official must hire more fire fighters in their agency.

*The Government must provide sufficient budget to our BFP for their protective
equipment, for additional personnel and for their fire trucks.

*The Community may needs to help our BFP in preventing fire incidents.

*The different Establishment must follow the fire prevention protocols that implemented
by the BFP.

Conclusion

The Bureau of Fire Protection is one the agency that needs a sufficient budget for our
government, who usually risk life and limbs in trying to put out a conflagration with the use of
obsolete and at times non-serviceable fire trucks and equipment, resulting in calamitous
consequences. It also because of the deficiency of resources of BFP the rate of the people die and
damage of property cause of fire is increase.
References

https://www.onenews.ph/articles/phl-firefighters-lack-equipment-personnel-fire-trucks

https://philippinego.com/172/

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/08/12/1942614/50-firefighters-dont-have-complete-
protective-gear-bfp