Heroic fireman killed fighting Mangga Dua fire

JAKARTA (JP): A group of firemen cried yesterday as the body of their team leader, Danu Sisworo, who was killed fighting a fire yesterday was shouldered by their colleagues onto a stretcher.

Anguish was evident in the faces of the firefighters who had seen Danu calling for help. He was trapped for hours on the fourth floor of the Harco Electronic Center in Mangga Dua, Central Jakarta, which was burned down yesterday.

Danu died of suffocation and burns.

Danu's friends could not rescue him because the fire engine's moving ladder did not the reach the fourth floor. The deceased, with six other firemen, had entered the burning building through the front door of the ground floor to look for the source of fire and the hydrant inside.

One of the team leaders, Sunanto, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that Danu was so brave he refused to leave the room where the fire came from. Instead he kept trying to extinguish the fire, Sunanto said.

Sunanto said he and five men, Danu, and a security official had taken an elevator to the fourth floor. But Danu and the security official went in a different direction to look for the fire.

Sunanto said he ordered his men and Danu to immediately evacuate the building when thick smoke began to engulf them.

"We took the lift to the ground floor but Danu insisted on staying on the fourth floor to put out the fire," Sunanto said. None of the firefighters had gas masks or breathing apparatus.

Firefighters said one fire engine, with five firefighters carried only one mask equipped with a small oxygen tank.

Sunanto said Danu asked for an extra flashlight but none of the firemen could reach him due to the thick smoke that hampered visibility. The emergency lights and the exit signs were not functioning because the generator was not on.

Sunanto said Danu must have gone the wrong way as he tried to get out and got trapped in the room where he suffocated to death.

"If only the exit door had not been locked and the building security officials had given us the master key to the door, Danu would have made it," Sunanto said.

Born in Yogyakarta in 1952, Danu married Sulariah D.S. and had four children, twins Hadi and Ida, and Andy and Ria. The family lived in a 24-square-meter two-story house in the Central Jakarta Fire Brigade housing complex on Jl. Zainul Arifin, Ketapang.

Sulariah told the Post she could hardly believe she was now a widow. The night before the tragedy she and her husband had exchanged jokes.

"You know, I teased him last night while preparing his clothes and underwear by telling him that I hated him," Sulariah said with tears in her eyes. She said Danu had responded to the jokes, saying she might have to find another man.

One of my children did not even get a chance to say goodbye to him because he left so early, she said.

Sulariah said she was very proud of her husband's profession. "He worked very hard to give us a good life. We tried to support our needs with his Rp 300,000 monthly salary and a few more from his side job of supplying fire equipment to the brigade."

Prior to the morning call to duty at 6:30 yesterday, Danu had taken Sulariah for a general medical check up.

Not long after he left me at the doctor's I heard the siren, I felt a bit worried ...," she said.

One of Danu's sons, who is studying in Lampung, South Sumatra, was on the way to Jakarta to attend the funeral scheduled for today.

Sulariah said she hoped that she and her children would be allowed to stay in the house until her youngest child passes high school.

Danu, who was known as a friendly and sociable person, had been in the fire brigade for 26 years.

Danu's heroic deeds prompted a lot of sympathy from the public. Deputy Governor for Administration Affairs Idroes said yesterday his office would donate money to the family of the deceased. (04/11/jun)