City plans to establish fire safety standards

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Administration is to formulate an Indonesian National Standard on fire safety to implement Bylaw No. 3/1992 on fire.

The decision was taken due to the large number of fires that have occurred in the capital -- fire department records show that approximately 800 fires occur in the capital every year.

Jakarta Fire Department chief Johnny Pangaribuan told The Jakarta Post on Friday that approximately 46 percent of buildings in the city, both public and private, lacked fire prevention or safety equipment.

Although some buildings are equipped with fire safety devices, no specific standards exist for such devices on a national or city-wide scale. Currently, standards for the units are set by fire safety equipment producers.

"The standard, once it is ready, will be applied in Jakarta because it already has a bylaw. Other provinces that do not have the bylaw must draft it before they can adopt the standard," Johnny said.

Under the bylaw, all public buildings must apply a regulated fire safety standard. Construction on a public building cannot commence until the building's owners receive clearance from the city administration on its fire safety system, which is to be issued along with the building permit.

Once the building is completed, its fire system must be checked by a team of inspectors, including fire department officers, to ensure that the building is safe for public use.

According to the Jakarta Fire Department, a public building must have adequate emergency exits free of any obstructions and must also have adequate access for firefighters.

However, in many buildings in the capital, emergency exits are locked, while in traditional markets, most emergency exits and stairwells are used to store goods.

Johnny said fire department officers checked buildings regularly every two years and had found that many buildings did not maintain their fire safety equipment properly.

"We have sent four building owners to court in the last four years for not heeding the rules. Now, they have upgraded their fire safety systems," he said.

Johnny said the main reason for the building owners' neglect in regards fire safety was because they had not experienced any fires before.

Their so-called logic was that, as such, it was unnecessary to install such equipment.

"Those building owners do not want to spend their money on something which will not bring a profit to them, such as fire safety devices," he said.

With an area of 661.52 square kilometers and 53 of its 267 subdistricts prone to fire, Jakarta has only 900 hydrants, far from the ideal of 20,000.

It is also short of human resources, with few young recruits joining up, and 95 percent of its 2,520 firefighters are over 45 years of age, 65 percent are over 55, 35 percent are over 50 and only 5 percent are below the age of 45.