Fire in Jakarta

What is happening! Every day in Jakarta there are reports of horrible fires that claim the lives of innocent people, and destroy the homes and businesses of many citizens. This is so very sad because it is so preventable.

The Fire Safety Educational Program developed by Fire Department (Dinas Kebakaran) is commendable but has limited funding, which therefore results in limited public awareness. To help combat Jakarta's fire epidemic through public awareness, television and radio stations should be required to dedicate "prime time" five to ten seconds public service announcements addressing Fire Safety.

Newspapers should provide periodic coverage of Fire Prevention. Home Fire Safety should be taught to children in schools and the children encouraged to bring Fire Safety into their homes.

Certainly, Fire Prevention Education and Public Safety Awareness alone will not solve the problem. Lack of proper housing, poor living conditions and limited fire prevention measures contribute significantly to the fire epidemic. However, it is so ironic, the fortunate who own homes and can afford fire prevention measures like smoke and fire detectors, are the ones who ignore fire prevention. The unfortunate who are the poor fire victims, cannot afford such detectors, but are the ones who are in most need of fire protection.

R. PAUL

Jakarta