BONTOC. A fire drill was conducted at Mountain Province State Polytechnic College on March 21, 2017 by personnel of the Bontoc Fire Station in line with the month of March as fire prevention month led by SFO1 Edwin Pilor, the team leader.
Students, teachers, employees and officers led by the college President Rexton Chakas joined in the fire drill. It was an unannounced activity for the college.
At 9:00 AM, the siren went on with a continuous alarm with the students, employees and administration officers proceeding to the designated assembly area. First aid was given to would-be victims by responders.
A short lecture on safety and prevention was given by FO1 Evona Faith Patingan followed by FO1 Samuel Segseg, Jr. lecturing on the proper use of portable fire extinguishers and its maintenance.
After the demonstration with the assistance of interns doing OJT at the fire station, participants were given the chance to use a fire extinguisher following the basic steps.
One of the more interesting part of the fire drill is on what to do when a LPG tank is on fire with FO1 Wayne Alphred Apolinar demonstrating on what to do. Participants were again given the chance to put off the LPG tank on fire. It was noticeable that only women participated in this drill.
Another important part of the fire drill is on what to do just in case your cooking equipment is on fire. Patingan and Apolinar showed the proper way of putting off the fire without using water directly.
After the fire drill, the BFP personnel gave their assessment and observations as to the readiness and response of the participants.
The following had these to say about the conduct of the fire drill at the college.
Timmy Puma-at, instructor of the research department, “It’s good it’s unplanned and we need that. We have to heed kung ano ang sabi ng mga speakers. Tama naman ang mga tips nila so it’s good we are informed, we are updated how we would be able to prevent fire and to firefight.”
Lynden Codmor director of civil security, “So far it’s very helpful to the employees and students of MPSPC. At least natutunan nila how to execute, gumamit ng fire extinguisher tsaka maintenance niya. And of course safety naman sa paglabas at least alam nila kung saan sila lalabas.”
Benjamin Cha-ar, security supervisor “There should be more lectures.”
Some students interviewed opted not to say anything about the fire drill. **
Ferdie Cariño Castañeda
