ABSTRACT

Although it’s invigorating to take some sips of coffee while chilling out in the cold morning breeze yet it’s somehow distressing to see a weary fireman neighbor coming from a long firefighting operation. Browsing, on the other hand, through some pictures, posts, and videos covering latest news on social media, one might inanely exclaim, “Whoa, my favorite food show!

Nonetheless, it can be told that before people could savor the sumptuousness of their food on the table at a given mealtime, instead of saying a prayer first, a partaker gets its smart phone, meticulously takes a photo or video of the prepared stuff with the acquaintances behind the same, and quickly posts it on social media. With the advent of photo and motion media, social media is becoming an avenue for pastime like watching TV. And it’s quite interesting to note that there are now a number of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Tinder, YouTube, Snapchat, etc.

Modern Fire Department such as the Bureau of Fire Protection should be adept in and be part of the social media. Social media should relate to local media outlets, present accomplishments of the Bureau of Fire Protection to elected officials and most importantly build relationship with the locality.

“Your community expects you to be there,” says Ron Morgan regarding an official presence on social media platforms. “Your community is on social media, and they want to hear from you. It doesn’t matter if you are on social media, the TAXPAYERS, and the CITIZENS you serve are.” Morgan is a professional firefighter for thirteen years of Hillsboro Fire Department and the communication director of Tualatin Valley.

The onset of the covid19 pandemic has set a difficult situation and had been a quite a different one unlike any of the previous years in many aspects. Due to granular lockdowns in localities with high coronavirus positivity rate, people’s needs, priorities, and lifestyles had to adapt to the consequent upheaval. The pandemic, too, defines and unravels the genuine importance of social media.

But with the onset of social media popularity, a pervading phenomenon in the Philippines of the fire service takes into notice with devastating effect. Civilians’ capturing of videos of fire incidents and taking the same to live streaming on social media like Facebook and calling immediately the fire station to supposedly report such sort of emergency. The researchers in which case enthused a great deal to venture into action research aimed to close the gap between taking social media like Facebook live streaming instead of calling the Bureau of Fire Protection to a viable solution by capitalizing Facebook live as a tool to connect with the same for a call of emergency response.
Owing to the loftiness of its status as a highly urbanized city seemingly growing at a geometric progression and the frequency of its fire occurrences, the tandem chose Lapu-Lapu City Fire District as the subject of this work. As we embarked on this study, the two of us had tapped the expertise of our collaborators. We did small group discussions of stakeholders, casual interviews, survey of email correspondences, and report documents. It was discovered that in order for us to exploit the problem and make such a solution, we have to come up with a page from a social media platform which people from all walks of life can easily gain an access to. The civilians taking video can transmit the same to BFP’s official Facebook page. Fire marshals, responding firefighters, LGU responders, volunteers and the like may be properly guided by the video/live streaming.