The recent deadly fuel tank explosion in Riyadh should remind Philippine authorities to properly equip its fire protection agency against the possibility of similar or worse infernos occurring in the country, a lawmaker said Friday.

Noting the threat posed by the Pandacan oil depot to nearby residents, Rep. Arnel Ty of the LPG Marketers’ Association party-list said at present, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) is hardly equipped to handle a huge blaze.

“Based on our previous consultations with the BFP, they’ve indicated the need for a boat plus possibly a helicopter capable of fighting fires from the Pasig River and from the air,” Ty said in a press statement.

He said a fireboat is a specialized vessel with pumps and water cannons for fighting riverside, shoreline and shipboard fires, while a helitanker is a chopper fitted with water receptacles, or mounted with fire-fighting foam cannons. 

“Fireboats and helitankers can siphon water from rivers, lakes and open reservoirs, so they can be very practical when water mains and fire hydrants are busted by an earthquake,” said Ty.

Twenty-three people, including a Filipino, were killed when a gas tanker carrying flammable liquids crashed in Riyadh and caused a large explosion. Ten other Filipinos were hurt in the incident. 

Ty said while the risk of an accidental blaze at the Pandacan depot may be low, oil fire disasters are nonetheless a constant risk.

“In the US and other countries, they’ve had accidental oil fires that some said would never happen. The fires were caused by blasts while leaks were being fixed or by blow ups during fuel transfers,” he said.

Natural disasters also posed similar threats, Ty noted. “All over the world, there have been oil fires caused by earthquakes, tsunamis and lightning strikes during severe storms.” 

Wise public investment

Ty said regardless of the Pandacan oil depot’s future, a fireboat and a helitanker might be a wise public investment to reinforce the BFP’s fire-fighting capability, considering the communities and businesses along key riverbanks and the growing number of skyscrapers.

Last October, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim rejected for the second time the proposed City Ordinance 8283 seeking to reclassify the 33-hectare Pandacan oil depot from an industrial to a high-intensity commercial district.

The reclassification is meant to compel the three largest oil companies in the country — Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Chevron Philippines Inc. and Petron Corp. — to dismantle and relocate their existing distribution terminals at the depot.

The fate of the oil depot is now up to Malacañang, which may sanction or rebuff Lim’s veto.

The depot, a 36-hectare cluster of harbor tanks containing 330.5 million liters of gasoline, crude oil and other flammable substances, was built in Pandacan in the 1910s by Shell, Chevron (then Caltex), and Petron (then Esso).

At present, the Pandacan oil depot supplies around 1,800 retail stations in Metro Manila and outlying provinces. The facility is also said to supply around half of the country’s total demand for fuel and other petrochemical products.

Dangerous depot

Efforts to have the oil depot transferred to other locations have been on for years due to the supposed danger it posed to residents.

In 2001, then-Manila Mayor Lito Atienza signed Ordinance 8027 ordering the relocation of the oil depot, triggering a legal battle that ended in May 2009 when the Supreme Court ordered the Manila government to implement the ordinance and move for the immediate closure of the oil depot.

However, weeks after the Supreme Court ruling was released, Lim overturned his predecessor’s ordinance and allowed the continued operation of the oil depot through his own city ordinance. The amended ordinance in 2009 repealed the 2001 ordinance and, in effect, voided the high court’s ruling.

The Manila city council earlier approved Ordinance 8283, which overturned the ordinance passed in 2009.

“Big 3”
Petron had indicated a plan to finally move out of Pandacan and transfer its storage facilities to the Manila North Harbour Port Inc, which the firm said would be much closer to its oil refinery in Limay, Bataan. The firm uses barges to deliver fuel from its refineries to Pandacan.

Shell and Chevron, however, have no plans of transferring their oil depots, saying relocation entails additional costs.

Shell uses an existing pipeline to transport their refined products from their refineries in Batangas to Metro Manila, while Chevron imports its products. — Amita O. Legaspi/KBK, GMA News