March is Fire Prevention Month around the Philippines. There are banners everywhere claiming individual's and businesses' commitment to the cause, although I haven't seen any education going on about the issue. Perhaps the prevention is somewhere? It's a big city, so I could be missing something...
Ironically, since March began, there have been three large fires in Cebu, the latest one killing three people. The first one was last Friday, and it really impacted me since we witnessed it first-hand. As a friend and I got out of a jeep, our driver pointed out the fire blazing on the hill up ahead. We looked up and couldn't help but stare, along with the hundreds or maybe thousands others that were gathered on the streets. We stood there for quite awhile, watching the blaze and wondering how many families just lost their homes. The smoke evolved from a thick gray cloud into a widespread black tunnel into the sky. It became more surreal when the flames started to appear over the rooftops and you could watch people in neighboring homes try to scale walls and climb out alternate ways. Eventually, fire trucks arrived, but not quickly enough. The fire was on a hill in an area where probably only walking paths separated houses from each other, so it spread quickly. Without home insurance, all of these families will have to start from scratch...
In the meanwhile, there is a lot of funding going into organizing activities for the annual monthly celebration, probably including art contests, parades, or such things that do not actually change the way things are done (such as faulty wiring, which caused the deadly fire yesterday). Just another day...
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