Most Jakarta nightspots lack safety system
Most Jakarta nightspots lack safety system
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
It is a three-story building, with rooms each measuring six
meters by seven meters. All of them are used in conjunction with
the entertainment center, with the upper rooms functioning as
karaoke lounges.
Every night visitors pack the three rooms, including the
karaoke hall of the Lokasari, dubbed the oldest entertainment
center and located in West Jakarta.
Surprisingly all three rooms have only one door to enter and
leave. Fire exits? Certainly not considered by the building's
owner.
No one could imagine how visitors could escape should fire gut
the building, as there is only one door measuring less than two
meters high by 80 centimeters wide as the only means of entering
or leaving.
"That's the only access. It also serves as the fire exit.
There's no back door," said the entertainment center's
receptionist, pointing to the door.
Such lack of safety awareness might have been the most serious
factor contributing to last week's fatal fire that gutted a five-
story nightclub, Heppi Karaoke, in Palembang, South Sumatra. The
building had no fire exits. No wonder that 52 people were killed
in the fire.
Such an accident could happen anywhere, especially in large
cities that have abundant high-rise buildings, such as Jakarta.
"Many buildings here do not have fire safety systems as
required by the City Fire Agency. That is solely due to building
owners' willful disobedience," said chief of the operations
division at Jakarta Fire Agency Ishak Sulaiman.
Ishak said the owners or users were often reluctant to allow
regular checks to be made of their buildings' fire safety
systems. Most had also provided minimal fire safety equipment,
such as portable extinguishers, sprinklers, automatic alarms and
hydrants.
The most recent data at the city administration shows there
are about 1,400 nightspots operating in the capital, including
massage parlors and billiard centers, employing 150,000 people.
The owners can easily ignore the requirements, Ishak remarked,
regretting that City Bylaw No. 3/1992 on fire prevention failed
to stipulate harsher penalties for violators.
According to the bylaw, those who fail to comply with the
requirements are subject to three months in jail or a Rp 50,000
(about US$5.50) fine.
A new bylaw, issued last year, increased the fine to Rp 5
million. "The amount seems derisory to most businesspeople," said
Ishak.
In a related development, head of Jakarta Building Control
Agency Jumhana Tjakrawirya revealed that when applying for a
building permit many businessmen did not say that their building
would be used as an entertainment center or nightspot.
"They ask for building permits for office buildings or shops.
Later, after receiving the permits, they use the buildings for
entertainment purposes, and they get a permit from the City
Tourism Office," Jumhana told The Jakarta Post.
Jumhana said administrative penalties would be imposed on
those violating building and building use permits. "We shall
issue written warnings before sealing off the nightspots."
Meanwhile, an official at the City Tourism Office revealed
that many nightspot operators often had excuses for not having
adequate fire exits in their buildings.
"Many of them lock the fire exits, leaving a single access and
exit available to make it easier for security guards to monitor,
through fear of pickpockets or uninvited visitors entering the
premises," said the official who asked to remain anonymous.
Following the Palembang inferno, he claimed his office had
sent out warning circulars to nightspots in the capital to
improve their fire prevention systems.
"At least, if there is no fire exit, they could enlarge the
building's main doors," said the official, who also wished to
remain anonymous.
Last year, the entertainment industry contributed Rp 65
billion in entertainment taxes to the city's total revenue of Rp
3.6 trillion.