Around Rp 144.2b in assets lost to fire every year

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta

The increasing incidence of fires in the last three years has caused victims to suffer an average of Rp 144.2 billion (US$16 million) in material losses.

"Most fires in the last three years took place in slums," Jakarta Fire Department chief Johnny Pangaribuan said on Wednesday.

The greatest number of fires in residential areas was in 2002 when 5,022 houses were damaged by fire. This was greater than the 3,436 in 2001 and 3,004 in 2003.

However, department data reveals that material losses have been on the decline.

In 2001, material losses were Rp 191.9 billion in 729 cases, falling to Rp 130.9 billion in 2002 in 837 fires. The total was even smaller last year, with Rp 109.8 billion in losses from 854 fires.

Johnny said that financial losses were not related to the large areas affected by infernos, where the majority of such disasters occurred.

"Financial losses are larger if fires occur in industrial areas or commercial premises rather than slums."

Johnny said his office would continually upgrade equipment to enable firefighters to work faster and better, thus helping to reduce the number of victims or amount of property damaged.

Currently, the department has 140 fire trucks, far from the ideal of 267, which is similar to the number of subdistricts in the capital.

Previously, the department calculated it needed 224 subdistrict fire stations for every 30,000 residents, each equipped with two hose trucks, and another 37 district stations to cover every 200,000 residents.  Each district should have at least two hose trucks, one ladder truck, two motorcycles, one ambulance, one rescue truck, one command vehicle and one special utility car, depending on the characteristics of the area covered.

Johnny said the department would purchase two submersible pumps this year to supply fire trucks with water from a water source located as far as two kilometers away from the site.

"At present we have only one submersible pump. We need the pumps because most of the existing hydrants do not work. One pump can supply water for six fire trucks simultaneously," he said.

With an area of 661.52 square kilometers, of which 53 of 267 subdistricts are prone to fires, the city has only 900 hydrants, far from the ideal of around 20,000.

The department organized training sessions for youths in the Fire Volunteers Front (Balakar) last year in an effort to overcome its manpower problem. But the programs were not successful, as many of the youths moved to other areas or found jobs.

Department spokesman Sardiyo Sardi said the training was not applicable for Jakarta as the department adopted the scheme from other cities, assuming that the trained volunteers were permanent residents.

Johnny said his department would concentrate on training permanent residents with a variety of firefighting skills, including how to use fire extinguishers distributed by his department to residents, and giving first aid to fire victims.