Fire on Earth is a pervasive feature of the living world.

Life created the oxygen that combustion requires,

and provides the hydrocarbon fuels that feed it. Today, through the agency of humans, life also supplies
most ignitions, surpassing the previously dominant source, and lightning. Fire takes apart what
photosynthesis has put together; its chemistry is a bio-chemistry. Fire is not something extraneous to
life to which organisms must adapt, it is something that has emerged out of the nature of life on Earth
and this is according to the ecology of fire written by Stephen Pyne.

Power for homes and Industries

The electricity that powers our homes comes from power plants, most of which have fire at the core of
production. Fire also provides energy for power plants. The electricity that flows to our homes is
generated in power stations. From here, it flows through large transmission lines, which carry it to
substations. Finally, distribution lines carry electricity from substations to houses, businesses, and
schools. Based on the results of the 2011 Household Energy Consumption Survey (HECS), electricity
remains as the most common source of energy used by households in the Philippines. About 87 percent
of 21.0 million households used electricity from March to August 2011.

The Philippines’ current energy mix highly favors fossil fuels, with coal, natural gas, and oil, accounting
for 73.56% of the country's total electrical energy needs, primarily due to their low cost. The Philippines
is highly dependent on coal as source for electricity generation. Coal power plants generated 46.8
million MWh in 2017, making up half of the country’s power generation mix. Renewable energy and
natural gas power plants followed with respective shares of 24.6% and 21.8% to the country’s gross
power generation. Oil-based power plants contributed the least, at 4%. As of March 2016, there were 32
coal-fired power generation facilities connected to the energy grid. These facilities are spread
throughout the country, although most of them are in Luzon and Visayas. The number of coal-fired
power plants in the country is set to increase by 25 by the year 2030 to keep up with the Philippines’
growing energy demands.

OPPOSITION

THE Philippines continues to experience disastrous fires, often marking some of the worst fire incidents
in history.

On May 13, 2015, a fire broke out at the Kentex Manufacturing factory in Valenzuela City, wherein 74
people were killed after being trapped inside the burning shoes-and-slippers factory.

It is the third worst fire incident in the Philippines after the 1996 Ozone Disco Club fire that killed 162
and the 2001 Manor Hotel fire that led to the death of 75 people.

In all three cases, buildings were totally burned or destroyed, huge amounts of investment went up in
smoke in a matter of hours and those who were lucky enough to escape and survive suffered the
tragedy of losing their jobs, their source of income and livelihood.

Fast forward to the present-day scenario, the Philippines remains washed up in fighting fire, if not
preventing it from happening.
Data from the bureau showed there have been 1,758 fires so far in 2018, which have injured 108 people
and damaged over P1 billion in property.

Out of the total, 525 fire incidents were recorded in Metro Manila, where 9 died and 36 were injured,
the BFP said.

In 2017, there were some 14,000 fire incidents nationwide. These left dead 304 civilians, injured 889
others and left some P7.8 billion in damage to property, the bureau added.

The BFP on Thursday marked the start of the Fire Prevention Month. Temperatures peak in March,
heralding the arrival of summer and at the same time heightening the risk of fire.