A fire is a state, process, or occurrence of combustion in which fuel or another

material is ignited and mixed with oxygen, producing light, heat, and flame. Fire safety
refers to a collection of practices designed to reduce the destruction caused by fire. Fire
safety procedures include those used to prevent the ignition of an uncontrolled fire as
well as those used to minimize the development and impact of a fire after it has begun.
Fire fighting equipment is designed to extinguish fires or protect users from fire. It can
be utilized by trained firefighters, unskilled bystanders at a fire, or built into the
infrastructure of a building.

Fires constitute a critical type of hazard in school facilities (Jonsson et al., 2016;
Bhebhe et al., 2019). Statistics indicated that a significant number of fatalities and
injuries, around the world, have taken place in schools, due to fire accidents (Lambie et
al., 2018). Health and safety concerns are of prime significance to parents, teachers
and school administrators, to ensure the provision of a safe built-environment,
conducive to learning and achievement of desired outcomes (Frerichs et al., 2016;
DeVos, 2018; Campos, 2020). Therefore, schools need to implement a comprehensive
management and control system to identify and mitigate the occurrence of all possible
types of hazards (Lenzi et al., 2017).

In order to lessen the fire incidents, a law has been passed about the said
problem. Pursuant to Presidential Decree 115-A, the month of March is declared as
“Fire Prevention Month”, with the mandate of providing widespread information on fire
prevention and suppression, raising national awareness, and mobilizing every citizen to
take maximum preventive measures to ensure meaningful reductions in alarming fire
incidents.

March is considered to be one of the warmest months in the Philippines. It is also

the month with the most fire incidents in the country, prompting the Bureau of Fire
Protection (BFP), government units, fire fighting agencies, and educational institutions
to conduct various fire prevention activities. It reminds us all that, despite the fact that
the discovery of fire was one of man's early technological discoveries, it has since taken
many lives, damaged properties, and dilapidated spirits.

With such, this study will aid in assessing 3 rd year Criminology students of
Central Bicol State University of Agriculture – Sipocot in their knowledge on using
firefighting equipments, understanding of handling firefighting equipment and
determining how prepared they are to prevent fire-related incidents. Furthermore, this
study will be conducted to ensure the safety of the students. The findings of this study
will help the researchers to provide the best recommendation that will aid the
institution’s administration to mitigate such fire related injuries if situations like fire
happened.

𝐈𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐏 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐬

At about 3 AM on 2 June 2020, the school canteen was gutted by a fire, which based on initial report
started at the maintenance storage room located behind the school canteen.
Night shift guards promptly reported the incident to the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP). The first
alarm was raised at 3:08 AM and the fire was declared out at 3:29 AM.
The incident was confined to the maintenance storage room and the canteen and did not affect the
surrounding buildings. The dormitory manager and the security personnel ensured the safety of the
students. There are no injuries both to students and to personnel as a result of the fire.
A team from BFP revisited the area at around noon today for purposes of the fire report which it will
provide to UP Cebu thereafter.
This incident is a first for us. Rest assured that the UP Cebu administration remains cautious and will
continue to work on improving our precautionary measures to ensure the safety and health of our
community, especially in these trying times.
Thank you for your attention and please continue to keep safe.