City wants Rp 9b for fire extinguishers

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The city administration has proposed that Rp 9 billion (US$978,260) be allocated in the 2004 revised budget for the procurement of mobile fire extinguishers for fire-prone community units (RW) and neighborhood units (RT).

"We have distributed fire extinguishers to fire-prone subdistricts. We want them also to be available at community and neighborhood units," Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo said at City Hall on Friday.

The administration will purchase 90 140-kilogram dry chemical fire extinguishers for 45 community units and 3,304 70-kilogram dry chemical fire extinguishers for 826 neighborhood units.

With 53 of its 257 subdistricts prone to fire, the administration has distributed 6,640 fire extinguishers and 30 portable water pumps and installed 600 fire alarms, which are directly linked with fire stations and the central fire department.

The extinguishers and the alarms are located in the houses of community unit and neighborhood unit secretaries, while the portable pumps are stored at subdistrict offices.

The City Council is deliberating the revised budget and is expected to deliver its final statement on Monday.

Fauzi said the existence of neighborhood and community unit fire extinguishers would assist residents who were in immediate danger, prior to the arrival of firefighters.

"Another problem is who will be in charge of the equipment? We will surely continue to train volunteers, grouped under the Fire Volunteers Front (Balakar), but at present they are not prepared," he said.

The city fire department chief Johnny Pangaribuan had said earlier that the training program, for around 3,000 young volunteers from fire-prone subdistricts, had been ineffective, mostly because many of the youths moved to other areas or found jobs.

Therefore, the fire department will focus on training residents so that they know what to do should a fire occur.

Fire department records show that fires are more likely to occur in slums and densely populated areas, mostly due to residents' negligence. Exploding kerosene stoves and power short circuits are the major causes of fires in the city.

Four fires were reported in the last week. The latest was on Thursday evening when fire gutted at least 40 houses in Petamburan, Tanah Abang district, Central Jakarta. The fire turned around 120 families homeless.

At least 20 fire trucks were deployed to put out the fire and firemen had to struggle for more than an hour before they managed to extinguish the flames.

Police are still investigating the cause of the fire.

Earlier on Tuesday, fire destroyed around 80 houses in Kebon Kacang, Central Jakarta. On Monday, fire gutted dozens of homes in Cakung, East Jakarta. A day earlier, the houses of 440 families in Petamburan were burned down.

From January to July this year, 390 fires in the city claimed 23 lives and injured 52 people. The fire department has estimated material losses at around Rp 59.72 billion.

The number of fires reported in the city has increased in the past three years, with 854 cases in 2003, 837 cases in 2002 and 729 cases in 2001.