Slum areas most prone to fires: Fire Department

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta fire department has recorded 437 fires over the last eight months with 80 percent of them occurring in slum areas.

Slum areas continue to be the areas most prone to fires in the capital, while at the same time often being the most difficult to reach when fire breaks out.

Johny Pangaribuan, deputy chief of the Jakarta fire department, told The Jakarta Post that most fires in slum areas were caused by short circuits due to faulty wiring resulting from the siphoning off of electricity by residents.

He added that this was compounded by the fact that many residents in these areas still used oil lamps and kerosene stoves, which only helped to accelerate the spread of fires.

On the other hand, Johny also conceded that due to their economic difficulties, these people often had limited resources.

"They are more concerned about ways of providing for themselves than safety precautions," he said.

Johny remarked that putting out fires in slum areas was difficult as such locations frequently could not be accessed by fire engines.

In addition, fire stations were often not promptly informed when a fire occurred, he complained.

"When a fire breaks out people are usually in a great panic trying to save their belongings, and only call the fire department when the fire has spread further afield," he explained.

The city's most fatal fire this year was in the slum area of West Pademangan in North Jakarta last weekend in which three people died.

Another obstacle faced by the fire department was the lack of adequate equipment and human resources.

The city fire department had only some 2,600 personnel and 150 fire engines.

When facing major fires, firemen were often impeded by the lack of water hydrants, which were not widely distributed throughout the city.

"There's only about 1,000 water hydrants across Jakarta, and even then not all of them function properly," Johny remarked.

"Unfortunately, in most slum areas, the very areas which are most prone to fires, there are often no hydrants," Johny said.

Johny conceded that there were often complaints from members of the public claiming that the fire department frequently arrived late at the scene.

"Even when we do get there, we only have enough water for about 10 minutes," he said, adding that a fire engine could only carry about 4,000 liters of water.

"When we run out of water, we must withdraw the trucks and search for water from nearby rivers, for example," he said.

The best recourse was, of course, to prevent fires from occurring by raising the public's awareness of various fire hazards.

With this in mind the fire department was currently conducting a campaign in various subdistricts and community units in slum areas to teach residents about ways to prevent and deal with fires.

Tips such as throwing a damp sack on a fire to extinguish it and using standardized electrical appliances were also being taught.

"But everything depends on the people's mind set, which is more important," Johny remarked.

But he also complained that even in many office buildings, not just slum areas, fire safety was often ignored.

"Building managers are often careless in maintaining their fire equipment. We often find this in our routine inspections," he said while suggesting that the building managers' reliance on insurance was another factor why the dangers of fire were often neglected.(06)