'Public recklessness main cause of fire'

'Public recklessness main cause of fire'

Following the blaze that razed over 5,500 kiosks at Tanah Abang
Market last week, city residents realized that their properties
were vulnerable to fires. However, public negligence of fire
systems and safety precautions deserved to be blamed for the
blaze. The Jakarta Post talked to some residents on the issue:

Yono, 41, is a meatball soup vendor in West Jakarta, and
formerly worked as a construction worker. He lives in
Pejompongan, West Jakarta, with friends, while his wife and two
children are in Central Java:

Actually, I don't know much about the fires that have broken
out in several places in Jakarta. I only know of the latest
incident in Tanah Abang Market last week.

I guess most traders there were so ignorant about fire hazards
that they neglected to check for anything which could cause a
fire.

They don't care about safety, as they only think about making
money.

Generally, they don't maintain the electrical system in the
market. They forget that jumbled old cables may short circuit and
cause sparks.

I just wonder that, nowadays, people seem to be getting more
careless and indifferent about safety. It's very different from
20 years ago, when I first came to the city. Fires very rarely
happened in the city then.

It's sad that the longer people are here, the sloppier they
become about fire safety measures.

Eka Dewi, 21, is a first-year student at the London School of
Public Relations in South Jakarta. She resides in Karet, South
Jakarta:

I guess the people's negligence deserved to be blamed,
following the big fire at Tanah Abang Market.

The fire showed the true picture of how people are becoming
more indifferent to and ignorant of fire safety measures.

If they cared so much about safety, they would have responded
immediately after the fire gutted the market.

In a way, I can understand that the economic hardship has
forced them to be indifferent in such a way that they don't even
care about each other. They just think about their own lives. I
think this kind of selfishness among city residents has made the
situation worse.

It seems they don't pay attention to fire systems and
equipment. The water hydrants and fire extinguishers were left
unchecked, I guess. Perhaps they just think that the fire system
is none of their business.

I think that it would be better to educate the public on how
to prevent and fight fires. The more knowledge they have, the
more aware they will be.

Even so, it's not impossible that the fire was caused by
arson, by a certain group of people with vested interests. So the
market and surrounding residences were set on fire on purpose.

As an aside, the city administration should recognize and
reward the city Fire Department more. They deserve life
insurance, because they have to risk their own lives in putting
out fires.

Sadiyo, 50, is an office boy at a private company in Central
Jakarta. He lives in East Jakarta with his wife and three
children:

I reckon that some of the fires in Jakarta were caused by the
carelessness and ignorance of people.

Most traders in markets, such as those in Tanah Abang or
Senen, are only concerned about money and, ironically, neglect
fire hazards.

They are also careless in designing the electrical systems in
their kiosks that they forget the possibility of short circuits.
Traders and city residents in densely populated areas should be
more aware of their electrical systems.

But I won't leave out the possibility that the fire was lit on
purpose, such as what happened to the Taman Puring traditional
market last year. The culprits wanted to take advantage of the
situation in many ways.

I'm pretty sure that public negligence of fire and electrical
systems is the main cause of the fires in the city, even though I
don't really watch television or read the newspaper. -- Leo
Wahyudi S.