This is the Reason Fire Services Always Respond to All Public Complaints

Firefighters, or damkar, often receive high public appreciation and satisfaction because they always accept various community complaints outside of firefighting functions. Even last year, Interior Minister Tito Karnavian praised damkar for the high public satisfaction towards them.

This attitude is not without reason. Firefighting personnel have standard operating procedures to accept community complaints even if they are outside the main duties of damkar.

A member of the firefighters from the DKI Jakarta Fire and Rescue Prevention Agency or Gulkarmat, Erwin Wijaya, said that damkar personnel must not refuse community complaints.

“So we don’t say ‘sorry, we can’t’. Whatever the community’s request, whatever the community’s complaint, at least we show up first,” said Erwin when met by Tempo at the Gulkarmat DKI Jakarta Agency headquarters in Central Jakarta on 19 March 2026.

Erwin explained that according to SOP, damkar personnel at least come first to the scene. He said damkar must work first. If the complaint is far from rescue duties, damkar will provide an explanation that they cannot help.

“Here we give a more wise reason to the community. The important thing is that we must be present first, we must come first to the scene,” said Erwin, who has been a firefighter since 2004.

Erwin revealed that indeed many requests for help from the community are outside of rescue duties. Even Erwin said he was once asked to handle rats or even build a house. If so, Erwin said damkar must still show up first at the location and provide an explanation about damkar duties.

“Once in Krukut, ‘Sir, I’m building (a house), please help’. Oh dear, we’re damkar, Sir, not the field. In the end, we gave them understanding,” said Erwin.

Erwin realises that damkar is appreciated as an agency that is trusted and appreciated by the community. However, he hopes the community can help damkar when working. One of the obstacles for damkar is illegal parking that blocks fire trucks from entering the fire location.

“Please for the illegal parking or parking more neatly arranged so that our units when carrying out evacuation and extinguishing can more easily or more quickly access the fire point,” he said.

Sutrisno, a member of the Central Jakarta Gulkarmat Sub-Agency, also experienced similar obstacles. He said that often fire trucks have difficulty entering settlements because many roads are gated. As a result, they have to connect many hoses to reach the location.

“In the end, we have to go around, taking a long time. What should be 3-5 hoses, it can become 20 long hoses,” said Sutrisno to Tempo at the Central Jakarta Sub-Agency Gulkarmat headquarters on 19 March 2026.

Based on the DKI Jakarta Gulkarmat profile document seen by Tempo, throughout 2025, Gulkarmat DKI Jakarta recorded around 1,656 fires in Jakarta. This number is lower than in 2024 with 1,969 incidents. The highest fire trend in the last five years occurred in 2023 with 2,286 incidents.

Meanwhile, Gulkarmat DKI Jakarta has carried out rescue operations 8,072 times. This number increased compared to last year with 6,800 incidents.

The most common rescues carried out by South Jakarta DKI firefighters are animal rescues, then helping to retrieve keys or mobile phones from waterways, to incidents of residents’ fingers stuck in rings or objects.