TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol — The Bohol provincial office of the Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP) has recently received four brand new firetrucks from the national Government, which will be stationed in the municipalities of Maribojoc, Dimiao, Trinidad and Panglao Island.

Bohol Provincial Fire Marshall, Supt. Pepe Rebusa said the four Isuzu Patriot fire trucks will further help the province in its emergency concerns, particularly since the new firefighting equipment will substantially reduce response time during outbreak of fire.

Rebusa explained that in the past, Bohol province only had 14 fire trucks used to cover 47 towns and one city. This is the reason why fire stations here are being clustered, he said, but “with the addition of the new fire trucks we are now nearing the ideal requirement of one firetruck per municipality.”

He said, “These additional fire- trucks are expected to help increase our action in response to fire alarms, as it is state-of-the-art and are stationed in areas much closer to each other.”
Rebusa disclosed that the new fire trucks cost R9 million each and each is equipped with the latest fire-fighting tools.

The trucks can carry up to 1,000 gallons of water each and were locally manufactured by a Research Institute in Quezon City.

The BFP provincial office, of late, has been gearing for the conduct of various seminars and symposium for its kiddie and junior Fire Marshall program.

“We will be visiting different schools here to hold seminars on fire prevention and response to make our students aware of and at the same time help them protect themselves in case of emergency,” said Rebusa.

He also said that the El Niño phenomenon’s intensification of heat levels during the extended dry period is expected to make light housing materials more vulnerable to fire, and thus, “it is important that we teach our students how to deal with this situation.”