Cebu City BFP notes drop in fire incidents in 2025

The year 2025 recorded a significant drop in the number of fire incidents compared to the previous year, which the Cebu City Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) attributes to its intensified fire prevention campaign.

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According to the latest data, the BFP recorded 263 fires from January 1 to December 16 this year, showing a notable decrease compared to the total of 329 fires for the entire year of 2024.

Senior Fire Officer 3 Wendell Villanueva, spokesperson for the Cebu City BFP, described the reduction as a “victory” in their campaign for a safer community.

“Kung ato i-kompara—263 versus 329-dako gyud siya og reduction in terms of fire incident... Nidaog ta dihang dapita,” said Villanueva during the Openline News Forum earlier this week.

Aside from the number of reported incidents, Villanueva also disclosed that the estimated worth of damages caused by these fires has dropped from P128 million last year to P116,243,000 so far in 2025.

When asked if the decline indicated that the community had become more responsible and cautious in preventing fire disasters, Villanueva asserted that the community has been “responsive” and “enthusiastic” about the BFP's ongoing information campaign, which begins at the grassroots level.

“Hopefully, that’s the result of the subsob nato nga kampanya sa atoang Oplan Ligtas na Pamayanan, wherein we penetrate down to the grassroots level—to the barangay, to the sitio-level—just to educate them on how important fire safety is,” he said.

He added that the decrease in numbers reflects changes in full cooperation and active involvement within the community, noting that “fire safety is really everybody’s concern.”