Jakarta high-rise buildings labeled as deathtraps

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city hall may look impressive from the outside but visitors would be reluctant to step inside if they knew that an outbreak of fire could turn the building into a towering inferno, given the lack of maintenance of its fire safety equipment.

If fire gutted the ninth floor of the building, people trapped on the upper floors would have to go upstairs, as the fire escape does not go any further than that floor.

The firetrap was revealed by the chief of the City Fire Department, Johny Pangaribuan, to a seminar on the prevention of fire held on Friday.

"City hall is only but one instance of how high-rises in Jakarta, especially government offices, have neglected their fire safety systems," Johnny said.

He said the city administration has always reasoned that there was no specific funding allocated for the maintenance of its fire safety systems.

"It also said that there was no individual department that was in charge of maintaining fire safety systems," he said.

A recent report by the City Fire Department revealed that out of over 1,000 buildings in Jakarta, only 50 percent maintained their fire safety systems. Most of the negligent buildings were owned by government agencies, it said.

A high-rise is required to have well-maintained sprinklers, fire extinguishers, two fire escapes and easy road access for fire trucks.

Johnny added that there were only a handful of government- owned buildings which met fire safety standards.

The BNI and Bank Mandiri buildings, Johnny said, were among a few of the city's high-rises which provided sufficient safety for their occupants in case of fire.

He also commended foreign companies occupying some high-rises in the city for upholding fire safety regulations.

The head of the city's Building Control and Oversight Agency, Djumhana, said that as part of the campaign to promote fire safety, the city administration plans to release a list of which buildings comply with fire safety requirements.

"The list enables the public to know which buildings are safe and which are not," Djumhana said, adding that the list would force building owners in the city to uphold the law on fire safety.

Johnny said that leniency of the law had also prompted building managers to ignore the minimum requirements for fire safety systems.

"Building managers found guilty of not installing adequate fire safety equipment were only fined Rp 100,000 (US$11), which is far below the maximum punishment," he said, adding that Bylaw No.3/1973 on fire safety stipulated that the maximum fine was Rp 5 million.

So far, the fire department has only managed to bring two errant companies to court, Johnny said.

He said that the fire department had filed a proposal to City Council to amend the outdated bylaw so that it could impose more severe punishment on violators.

Johnny said that in the near future the fire department would install fire alarms in 600 of the city's most fire-prone areas.

"In case of fire, a resident needs only to set off the alarm, and firefighters from a nearby post will immediately respond," he said.

Table:

Fire incidents 1998-2002

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002*

Number of fires 795 831 794 772 653 Est. losses 6,210 60,764 2,410 4,263 n.a (million rupiah) Death toll 54 48 71 38 n.a

*) Until November Source : City Planning Agency