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Whereas every year fires occur in some sections of the country rendering people homeless and destitute;

Whereas fires have wrought damages not only to the people directly affected but also to the whole country amounting to several million pesos; and

Whereas the planning and study of efficient and modern methods of preventing the tremendous waste resulting from fires are necessary to insure the safety of the people and the protection of their properties;

Now, therefore, I, Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers in me vested by law, do hereby constitute and create a National Fire Prevention Board to be composed of a chairman and four members who shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines from time to time.

The board which shall meet at the call of the Chairman shall have the following duties:

(a) To investigate the origin and cause of fires;

(b) To study ways and means of preventing and fighting fires;

(c) To arouse the inhabitants of the Philippines to the necessity of combating and preventing fires by appealing to their sense of individual responsibility through the newspapers, radio, posters, or other means of dissemination;

(d) To coöperate with the authorities concerned in the adoption of such measures as may be necessary for the effective supervision and regulation of the manufacture, distribution, storage, and possession of petroleum, gas, acetylene, dynamite, gunpowder, explosives, blasting supplies, or ingredients thereof, and other highly combustible matter;

(e) To cause the inspection of factory buildings, and other structures which are considered lire hazards and recommend to the proper authorities their removal or their remodelling so as to provide sufficient protection against fire;

(f) To encourage the observance in every municipality and chartered city of Fire Prevention Week proclaim in Proclamation Numbered Two hundred forty-eight, dated January twentieth, nineteen hundred and thirty-eight; and

(g) To submit from time to lime to the President of the Philippines its recommendations on fire prevention.

All officers and employees of the different Departments, Bureaus, offices, agencies, and instrumentalities of the National Government and those of the provinces, cities, municipalities, and other political subdivisions are hereby enjoined to cooperate with the Board in the performance of its functions and, with the approval of the corresponding Head of Department shall, when necessary, render such service as the Board or any of its members may assign to them.

To assist the National Fire Prevention Board in its work, there is hereby created in each province a Provincial Fire Prevention Board to be composed of the provincial governor, as chairman, and the district engineer, the division superintendent of schools, and the provincial inspector of Constabulary as members, to perform such duties as may from time to time be assigned to it by the President or the National Fire Prevention Board.

Done at the City of Manila, this eighteenth day of October, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and thirty-eight, and of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the third.


By the President:

JORGE B. VARGAS
Secretary to the President