Preventing Fires: Extinguishing the Scorching Embers of Nescience

“Fire destruction is one man’s job; but fire prevention is everybody’s job,” a wise man once said. Likely,
I think that we really ought to learn how to avoid the burning cinders of our own inattentiveness and
obliviousness.

However, fairly enough, I also deeply believe that our government already walked great strides when
it comes to fire prevention through the Fire Code of the Philippines of 2008 which saved a great number of
lives. Nonetheless, there is still a need for us to be wiser now in the way we approach record breaking fire
disasters because they don’t become disasters unless the response falls short of what the affected people
need.

I believe that it is the time that the government shift from building awareness to upholding resilience.
And this can only be done by training families, having nationwide drills and ensuring adherence to standard
fire prevention and safety measures.

First of all, training families is already a big help. Not only houses and infrastructures would become
ashes if a big fire comes, but also our families – and no one would want that to happen. As we all know, what
a great help it would be if we save ourselves from fire accidents; however, it would be a noble act if we save
our families from being gone along with our properties, right? Also, families are the smallest unit of the society
and initiating a change within the smallest unit would later on bring about a big help to the whole society.
Educating families about the dangers of fire would not only save them but give them the security to their future
as well.

Second, having nationwide drills is of course, undeniably, a big help in building our awareness in
disasters. Drills are no strangers to us anymore, especially to us students. However, when we hear the word
‘drill’, the word ‘earthquake’ immediately comes next and do you know why? This is because we have
earthquake drills more regularly than fire drills which is reasonable since the “Big One” may come
unexpectedly. Still, we should make big efforts in promoting fire prevention nationwide through fire drills and
other activities that may be able to endorse fire prevention and protection to other citizens of the country.

Third and last, the government should continue to create more laws to prevent fire accidents and
enforce all rules and regulations to make sure that everyone follows the standard fire safety measures so that
no one would get hurt when the time comes. Also, the government should create more building codes in
relation to preventing fire accidents resulting from faulty circuits, misplacement of wirings and the likes. Not
only the government, but also us, citizens, should make efforts in encouraging everyone in obeying rules when
it comes to preventing fires.

However, even though that the government is there to provide us a big help in saving ourselves from
fire disasters, the sweltering change should start within us. We, ourselves, should have the fundamental
knowledge about fires and how dangerous it would be to encounter them. We should know what to do when
a big fire comes and turns everything into ashes.

Truly, it is our firemen’s job to extinguish fires, especially the big and destructive ones; but we should
know that it is everyone’s job to know how to prevent fire accidents. If we don’t choose to ameliorate our
manner of approaching fire disasters, it might be hard for us to recover and be resilient for the next disasters
that may come. Worse, big fire accidents or disasters might come knocking at our doors when we are most
unprepared.

Indeed, just like the old proverb says, fire is never a gentle master.