Secretary Roy Cimatu has placed all regional offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on alert for forest fires.
He instructed the executive directors of 16 DENR regional offices to effect a region-wide assessment and updating of their forest protection plans in anticipation of an El Niño-induced drought, which could increase the risk of wild fires.
“Our teams should always be ready for deployment to suppress incidents of outbreaks, particularly grassfires, to prevent them from crossing over to forested areas and turn into full-blown forest fires,” Cimatu said.
The DENR chief told his field officials to give priority to vulnerable sites inside protected areas and those that have been rehabilitated under the Enhanced National Greening Program.
Fire brigades in ENGP sites are to be fully optimized using the manpower pool of 3,350 regular forest guards with the help of emergency workers hired under the program, Cimatu said.
Last year, DENR upgraded its forest fire fighting capabilities with the acquisition of more firefighting equipment and tools, such as fuel-powered grass cutter, collapsible fire pump, fire swatters, pick and scrape shovels, axes, rake hoes, fire helmets, heat resistant goggles, brush masks, and thermal working gloves.
The equipment and tools were distributed to 74 Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Offices and 140 Community Environment and Natural Resources Offices nationwide. (Ellalyn V. Ruiz)
