Fire, traffic hound Christmas holidays

(Updated 4:40 p.m.) With Christmas just around the corner, fire hazard materials abound and traffic is getting heavier in Metro Manila, prompting the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to reactivate alternate routes and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) to call on homemakers to be extra cautious. After they were opened earlier this month, the so-called “Christmas lanes" of the MMDA will face the acid test this week when traffic is expected to be at its heaviest. Christmas lanes or alternate lanes were the same routes used when the EDSA Metro Rail Transit (MRT 3) was being built in the late 1990s. These are routes motorists can take to avoid heavy traffic in Metro Manila’s main thoroughfares. “Sana makatulong ito nang bahagya lalo itong darating na linggo dahil puro Christmas party na. Matrapik na talaga (We are keeping our fingers crossed that the Christmas lanes will ease traffic especially this coming week. Traffic by that time will be really heavy)," MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino said in an interview on dzRH radio. Should they succeed in easing traffic, the MMDA will retain the secondary routes and rename them “Mabuhay Lanes," Tolentino said. He said MMDA’s initial time-and-motion studies showed some of the Christmas lanes succeeded in easing traffic. He cited a test where traffic from West Avenue in Quezon City to Buendia in Makati via EDSA was an 11-kilometer-per-hour (kph) crawl, but taking the alternate route from West Avenue to Vito Cruz was a relatively faster cruise at 25 kph. Meanwhile, the BFP said it is stepping up its safety inspections in some hospitals in Metro Manila after two medical centers burned last week. On Tuesday, fire of still undetermined origin hit the South Superhighway Medical Center in Parañaque City, while a predawn fire hit the East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City on Wednesday,. The BFP also ordered all Metro Manila fire marshals to suspend their routine fire safety inspections to avoid solicitation for the Christmas season. Senior Superintendent Pablito Cordeta, BFP director for National Capital Region, ordered fire marshals to refrain from conducting inspections in various establishments like malls, commercial buildings, restaurants, amusement parks, and hotels from Dec. 15, 2010-Jan. 15, 2011. Cordeta, however, said there are exceptions to this order, like inspections on “establishments with complaint, structures with pending application for new business permit, building [with application] for occupancy permit, and structures posing imminent danger." He urged the public to be “extra cautious" because December is a high-risk month for fires. He said malls, hospitals, universities, firecracker factories, and squatter areas are prone to fire this month because of high consumption of electricity. — JE/VS, GMANews.TV