Fighting fires all in the family for Ishak

Ishak Sulaiman was born in 1951 in the Jakarta Fire Department dormitory. He has been a fireman since 1968. Both his grandfather and father were firemen. Both his parents were also born in the dormitory.

Ishak is the oldest of 10 children. All four of his brothers are also firemen, while four of his sisters are married to firemen. Only his youngest sister is married to an "outsider", an employee of state-run telecommunications company PT Telkom.

Ishak's wife, Hartati, 52, is a former employee of the fire department. She was transferred in 1980 to the City Health Agency because of the government policy that spouses are not allowed to work in the same office.

Hartati's father was also a fireman, who died in action in the 1960s during the unrest surrounding founding president Sukarno's campaign of "confrontation against Malaysia". Her uncle was a subdivision head at the Jakarta Fire Department.

"You could say that the job runs in the family," said Ishak, a native Jakartan who is now the head of operations at the department.

However, it was not only tradition that made him become a firefighter.

"It was more of a call from my heart," he said.

His parents encouraged him to enter another profession because of the danger and low pay involved in being a firefighter.

But young Ishak, who lived in the dormitory complex behind the fire station, could not resist the bravery and courage shown by firefighters every time there was a fire.

"I always went to where the fires were, to see the firefighters battle the blaze. Eventually, I said to myself that I wanted to be a fireman," he said.

He added that another reason he joined the department was because he wanted to help his parents financially.

"I thought it must be hard for my parents to feed so many mouths. So I wanted to find a job and stop burdening my parents," he said.

Back in the late 1960s, it was relatively easy to get a job.

"All you had to do was pick a job. It is in contrast to today, where one job opening attracts thousands of applicants," he said.

Ishak practically just walked into the fire station and he was a member of the squad.

Eventually, his parents accepted his decision to follow the family tradition of fighting fires.

During his 35 years of service, he has battled thousands of blazes. He loves being in the field and even though he now rides a desk, he still rushes out to the scenes of fires.

Of his numerous experiences, it was the fire at the Marine munitions dump in Cilandak, South Jakarta, in 1984 that he will never forget.

"It was like a real war. Terrifying," he said.

The fire set off a seemingly endless chain reaction of explosions. Tons of projectiles screeched, whistled and roared into the night, turning the sky orange as metal crashed down onto houses and roads.

"Projectiles were flying over our heads while we struggled to extinguish the fire, which kept growing explosion after explosion," he said.

He was grateful to make it through that experience unharmed.

Just like his parents, Ishak urged his three children not to join the department, saying he had his reasons.

His eldest son, Yufrizal, 31, now has his own business after working at a Korean company. Najar Safrullah, 30, his middle son, is a second lieutenant in the Army, while his daughter, Fajaria Marisa, 18, is a student at a private university.

"Will there be a fourth generation (from my family in the fire department)? I don't know. Maybe one of my nephews will keep the tradition alive," he said.

-- Zakki Hakim