On March 13, 2023, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and SM Supermalls conducted a nationwide simultaneous fire drill in more than 90 SM malls.
With the theme “Sa Pag-Iwas ng Sunog Hindi Ka Nag-iisa” and #thinkfiresafetynow the fire drill on highly dense occupancy such as SM supermalls is one of the highlights of the celebration of Fire Prevention Month 2023 by both BFP and the SM Group. The event which started before the malls opened was participated in by more than 15,500 employees, tenants, agency personnel and costumers.
The main fire drill was in SM City North Edsa with a simulation of a strong earthquake hitting Metro Manila resulting to considerable damage to buildings, occurrence of fire, search and rescue of victims. The other malls made-up situations of fire occurring in restaurants, parking areas, rooftops, mall canopy. There were also scenarios of rescuing of victims and bringing them to the standby ambulance.
The SM Supermalls nationwide fire drill in partnership with the BFP is one of the ways in which SM amplifies its commitment to contribute to the creation of risk-resilient societies and promoting a global and national culture of disaster risk reduction and resiliency. The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) of SM and BFP give priority to the constant training of SM’s personnel to respond to disasters including earthquakes and destructive fires. This will help ensure the safety of SM’s stakeholders including customers, tenants, employees, nearby communities, and the general public.
The PPP of SM and BFP through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) also include fire prevention seminars with tenants and employees and conduct of BFP awareness activities inside SM facilities like the Mobile Business One Stop Shop (MBOSS), Fire Square Road Show, Oplan Iwas Paputok. Information dissemination campaigns on fire prevention are amplified with the use of cinemas, electronic billboards, and social media platforms.
Present during the drill in SM North Edsa were SM Executives Engr. Liza Silerio, Atty. Pearl Jayagan Turley, Marjorie Orellano, SM Consultants former USEC Alexander Pama and former BFP Fire Chief Carlito Romero. The BFP was represented by SSUPT Rodrigo Reyes, SSUPT Edwin Vargas, SINSP Gabriel Solano.
The partnership of SM and BFP demonstrates the progress made by the two entities in preventing disaster risks and losses of lives, livelihood and health – in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 – 2030.
