City plans to establish fire safety standards

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.