Improving the fire agency<\/p>\n
\"Fire is a good servant but a bad master.\" This old proverb
\nremains very relevant to Jakarta, which has seen at least three
\nbig fires since the New Year that have killed seven people.<\/p>\n
The most dramatic fire took place last Sunday in Cakung, East
\nJakarta, when three people, one of whom was a baby, perished in a
\nfire.<\/p>\n
For a populous city like Jakarta, fire hazards are everywhere
\n-- the high-rise buildings and upmarket housing complexes, as
\nwell as slum areas that are packed with houses -- and there are
\nmany factors that make fire a bad master.<\/p>\n
Almost all low-income residential areas, or kampong, in
\nJakarta, packed with rudimentary houses, reflect no awareness of
\nfire hazards at all. This is quite understandable. How would one
\nthink of fire prevention if the makeshift house on a 18-square-
\nmeter plot is one's only belonging? For those living in such an
\narea, fire prevention is a very rare and very expensive need.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the city administration too has poor awareness
\nof fire hazards. Who can guarantee that the hydrants installed in
\nmany parts of the city will be operable when a fire breaks out?
\nDo all high-rise buildings have proper fire exits as required by
\nlaw? There are many such similar lines of questioning.<\/p>\n
The administration's poor attention to the fire department
\nreflects its halfhearted alacrity in this issue.<\/p>\n
With only Rp 2 billion set aside from the 2002 Jakarta city
\nbudget, the fire department cannot do much to repair its damaged
\nor worn-out equipment. The fire department now has 150 old fire
\nengines and 30 ladder trucks. According to Jakarta Fire
\nDepartment head Johny Pangaribuan, 265 fire trucks are needed to
\ncover a city the size of the capital. Worse still, 15 of the fire
\ntrucks are in poor condition, and some of them are no longer
\noperable.<\/p>\n
While the fire department has only Rp 2 billion for the
\nmaintenance of its equipment, the administration set aside Rp 80
\nbillion for the beautification of The National Monument (Monas)
\nPark. Decision-makers should have better priorities.<\/p>\n
More surprising is that 65 percent of a total of 2,000
\nfirefighters are over 45 years old, and 30 percent are over 50,
\nmeaning that only 5 percent are of the ideal age of between 20
\nand 35 years old.<\/p>\n
Johny said he could not expect fresh blood to improve the
\ndepartment's human resources when the Jakarta administration had
\npostponed new recruitment in the recent years. \"Our personnel are
\nall civil servants recruited by City Hall,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Last year, Johny told journalists that his office received
\nsome 200 employees of former government institutions, which were
\ndissolved following the implementation of the Autonomy Law.
\nHowever, all these new employees are inactive. \"Eighty of them
\nare old,\" Johny said at the time. People over 50 are less adept
\nat heavy labor, like that required of firefighters.<\/p>\n
The fire department now has a total of some 2,500 employees,
\n500 of whom hold administrative jobs. While no data is available
\nfor the ideal number of firefighters for a city with a population
\nof 10 million, 2,000 firefighters have so far proved
\ninsufficient.<\/p>\n
What about the salary? A senior firefighter once said that he
\nreceived Rp 963,500 per month as a salary, in accordance with his
\ncategorization in the civil service, grade II D. A family of four
\nwould have to survive on that meager sum, while we hear that the
\nJakarta governor is to receive Rp 90 million a month for coffee
\nand Rp 65 million for official attire.<\/p>\n
Having watched the documentaries on the magnificent job of New
\nYork's firefighters on Sept. 11, 2001, we can only be envious and
\ndream of having a more professional fire department.<\/p>\n
We have to accept the reality that while hardly any of our
\nchildren want to be firefighters, many of them dream of becoming
\nsoldiers. This shows that firefighters are not popular here,
\ndespite their heroism in saving people's lives and battling
\nfires.<\/p>\n
So what should the fire department do to improve its
\nprofessionalism? This is what the city administration has
\nobviously been ignoring for years.<\/p>\n
It's time for the city administration to review its stance on
\nfire fighting by making it one of its priorities, at least in its
\nannual budget.<\/p>\n
Besides suggesting better welfare for firefighters, it is
\nimperative that the standard requirement for firefighters differ
\nfrom that of civil servants. To say the least, firefighters
\nshould be more physically fit than other civil servants.
\nFirefighters are not employees who sit at their desks or who read
\nnewspapers and play chess in their offices from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
\nlike the many civil servants that we commonly see.<\/p>\n
Given the responsibility of their tasks, firefighters need
\nbasic military training. The city administration must change the
\nrecruitment criteria for firefighters, and set aside more funding
\nto hire new, young firefighters immediately and give them the
\nproper training.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, in the next decade we will no longer see feeble and
\nslow firefighters, and spare more people from death by fire.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/improving-the-fire-agency-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}