Fire department faces too many problems

"We are dying slowly," said Gustopo, a firefighter posted at the Central Jakarta Fire Department.

Gustopo, 52, clad in his blue uniform, was referring to his dangerous job that has required him to have constant contact with smoke and fire almost every day for the last 30 years.

No one really knew what was burning or whether or not the smoke the fire generated was toxic, but firefighters could not avoid inhaling it or stop it from contacting the skin, he said.

Gustopo and a number of other middle-aged firefighters must also face the danger of accidents during their job and hostility from fire victims.

"What have we done wrong? We came to help, instead they attacked us and occupied the fire trucks," said Ibrahim, 50, Gustopo's coworker.

The head of the Central Jakarta Fire Department, Idrus Paddai, told The Jakarta Post that most residents misunderstood their job and work process. Therefore, the residents often said the fire was the firefighters' fault for showing up late, which led to hostility toward the personnel.

"Record this, firefighters will always be late," he said.

Naturally, firemen should come after receiving a call from the residents, he said.

However, residents usually panicked and attempted to put the blaze out by themselves and contacted the firefighters only after it was too late.

In the case of fire in slum areas, residents took time finding a phone booth. After a phone call was made, dialing 113, the fire headquarters would need to confirm the fire the avoid a hoax alarm. People also often refused to leave their numbers because they thought they would be charged for calling the firefighter service.

"Our service is free. We would come to anywhere at anytime," Idrus said.

Less then a minute after getting confirmation, firefighters would be on their way. Ideally, it should take 10 minutes at the longest to reach the fire scene.

But the heavy traffic congestion in the capital often hindered the fire engines, and sometimes motorists were reluctant to give way.

And the huge fire trucks frequently could not pass through small streets where many vehicles were parked on one or even both sides of the streets.

"There is a bylaw that forbids people from parking their cars on the streets. It really jeopardizes the firefighters work," Idrus said.

When attempting to reach the fire location in slum areas or in dense residential areas, the fire trucks were often stranded far away as there was no access at all.

"We would take hoses and portable water pumps through the houses to reach the fire," he said.

Whenever there was a house burning, firefighters would quickly isolate the fire by wetting the property surrounding the house so it would not burn other buildings and the fire was contained in a certain area. When the fire was isolated, it would be easier to control.

However, most fire victims misunderstood the process. They usually got mad and forced the firemen to direct the water on their burning houses. If the firemen refused, they would forcefully take control of the hose and the fire truck and shoot the water directly on the fire.

"Our fire trucks bring at most 4,000 liters each, which used effectively only lasts for eight minutes," said Idrus.

Panicked residents could drain the water within two minutes with no effect on the fire, instead the fire would spread to other buildings, he said.

"We understand fire, they should let us do our work," he said.

In a typical slum fire, the fire trucks form a long-line so that each truck is connected to each other and to a water source, such as a river or a hydrant.

If the first truck runs out of water, we take if from the second one, and so on.

Idrus said there were plenty of other things to do while the firemen did their job.

"They could, for example, secure the area from looters, evacuate the injured, move obstructions on the street and a whole lot of other things," he said.

For a while, the department has tried to overcome the hostility and its human resources problems by recruiting volunteers under the name of Fire Volunteers Front (Balakar).

"We invite and train youngsters from various subdistricts to assist us in combating fire," Idrus said.

This year the Central Jakarta Fire Department has started the program by training 350 volunteers, mostly from slum areas, and expects that each would pass his knowledge to at least 30 other residents in their neighborhoods.

"With more people having appropriate knowledge of fire fighting, it is more likely that people will assist the firefighters instead of hindering them," he said.

-- Zakki Hakim