This study was all about the enforcement of fire safety inspections to buildings and business establishments in Baguio City. The quantitative approach of research was utilized and descriptive type of research was employed. The respondents included 88 BCFS personnel, 82 LGU/BPLO/Barangay officials, and 116 business owners/residents totaling to 286 respondents. To triangulate the findings, the researchers conducted interviews among the respondents using Focus Group Discussion. This addiditional tool of research was not used to answer a research question but was used to validate findings. The study aimed at investigating the level of enforcement of the fire safety activities based on Republic Act 9514 and problems/issues encountered along its implemented.
It was found out that as to the level of enforcement of the different fire safety activities, the three groups of respondents revealed an overall mean rating of 4.33, interpreted as “highly enforced.”
As to the problems/issues that affect the enforcement of the fire safety program, the computed grand mean was 3.63 which means Serious. The test of significant differences revealed that the computed F-value of 13.689 is greater than the critical value of 3.46, thus the null hypothesis is rejected, which means there are significant differences of the groups of respondents.
After the conduct of the study, the researchers were able to found out that the BFP personnel cannot be effective and efficient if there are no external human resources in the different barangays of Baguio City. Since one of the identified problems is lack of personnel, this would drag all other activities of the BFP in the community. It affects the quantity of fire safety inspections, quality is also sometimes affected due to the volume of inspections being conducted in the field. The details of the “Community Based Fire Safety Program is found in Chapter 3 of this research paper as an offshoot of this research.
Based on the findings of the study, the following are concluded: on the level of enforcement of fire safety, the BCFS personnel and business owners/residents are following the standards in the conduct of fire safety inspections, however, there are some LGU/BPLO/Barangay officials who are violating the processes due to influence and power accorded to them. This indicates dialogue and education is a necessary intervention in the conduct of fire safety inspections. On the problems/issues that affect the enforcement of fire safety regulations, the legal standards of fire safety regulations in Baguio is much being followed due to some factors that are organizational and human related. The lack of human resources and insufficient budget allotted would really affect the operationalization of a certain office like the BCFS. On the significant differences, the BCFS personnel and LGU/BPLO/Barangay Officials have similar assessment on the level of enforcement of the fire safety inspections activities, while the BCFS personnel and business owners/residents have similar perceptions when it comes to the problems/issues encountered in the implementation of the fire safety inspections in the barangays of Baguio City.
The following recommendations were drawn : 1) The BCFS should conduct periodic inspections to private and government buildings with the assistance of barangay officials and appointed fire safety officer in the barangay level; 2) The BCFS must strategize to conduct inspections of buildings before, during, and after constructions. This may be done by coordinating to the concerned barangay to appoint a fire safety officer who shall assist the fire safety inspectors during the conduct of the fire safety inspections; 3) The barangay council may create a committee on fire safety and appoint a kagawad or any active member of the community to serve as Fire Safety Officer who shall be given powers and functions through a Barangay Ordinance; 4) The BCFS to request to the City Council for additional personnel who shall serve as Fire Safety Officers in the barangay level who shall be under the Office the Mayor. This is to address the insufficient number of BCFS personnel who are conducting fire safety related inspections in the City of Baguio; 5) The BCFS administration may have a dialogue with the Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) and City Council to solve the problem on Political influence in the conduct of fire safety inspections and issuance of related documents; 6) The BCFS to request for additional budget to the City council which shall be allotted in educating the community on fire safety regulations based on Republic Act No. 9514; 7) To conduct similar study on fire prevention in Baguio City which deals in evaluating fire education, fire suppression, and fire prevention; and 8) To adopt the “Community-Based Fire Safety Program” that may serve as springboard towards maintaining a Fire free