Fire Agency gets more familiar with lingering problems

JAKARTA (JP): The city's fire chief, Suharso, expressed concern on Thursday over the poor condition and lack of agency equipment.

Fire units had been suffering from a shortage of essential equipment since before the economic crisis started hitting the country in July last year, he said, adding that the situation was getting worse.

"The agency has been experiencing equipment problems and it will only get worse in the future," he reiterated.

The agency currently has 136 fire engines, eight equipped with ladders. The fire engines are counted among the agency's fleet of 170 vehicles which were bought between 1975 and last year.

Several of the vehicles are under repair, including four of the fire engines equipped with ladders, he said.

Suharso said the fleet was far from enough to cover the greater Jakarta area with its 10 million people and 800 high-rise buildings.

"Ideally, one fire engine serves a population of only 10,000. With the fall of the rupiah, I don't think we can afford any more new fire engines. Even the cheapest ones cost about Rp 400 million," he said.

The agency currently employs 2,601 firefighters. The force is less than three times as large as Brunei Darussalam's 1,000- strong fire department, which has to cover a population of only 300,000, he said.

The administration allocates a Rp 11 billion (US$1 million) yearly budget for the agency's operational costs.

About 60 percent of the total budget is for training and the firefighters' welfare, while the remainder covers equipment maintenance and procurement, he said.

He said three of the city's fire engines had been badly damaged by angry mobs during the mid-May riots when firefighters had to fight blazes throughout the city.

Officials estimate that 1,200 people were burned to death in buildings set on fire during the riots.

"Firefighters deployed to the burning buildings were actually very careful. However, they were faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, they were obliged to extinguish the fires. But on the other hand, they faced attacks by angry mobs," Suharso said in a news conference on a plan to hold an international fire conference and exhibition here on Sept. 17 and Sept. 18.

Bruce Hogg of the Fire Service College in Moreton-on-Marsh, Britain, a speaker at the conference, said the agency had been working well considering its limited capacity. However, Jakartans still did not take sufficient precautions against fire, he said.

"People here, even those educated and professional managers of hotels and high-rises, ignore and pay little attention to fire. In England, safety and fire awareness is introduced in kindergartens and schools, so when they grow up they're already aware of the danger of fire," Hogg told The Jakarta Post.

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso is scheduled to open the two-day conference and exhibition in Shangrila Hotel in Central Jakarta together with Minister of Public Works Rahmadi Bambang Sumadhiyo and Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris.

At least 120 participants, 20 of them from Sudan, Jordan and Britain, have registered for the conference, which aims at improving fire safety standards in hotels and other high-rise buildings. (emf)