No Tobacco Area

Smoking is not only bad for the health but also causes fires, as shown by recent data revealing that cigarettes caused around one fire per month in West Jakarta last year.

Data from West Jakarta Fire and Disaster Management Subagency shows that cigarettes were responsible for at least 12 of the 261 fires in the area in 2009.

Electrical faults were the single biggest cause of fires, accounting for 135 of the cases. Stove explosions caused another 18, while the causes of the remaining 49 were unknown.  

The areas most prone to fires were Kalideres district with 37 cases, followed by Cengkareng with 35, Kembangan (34), Tambora (32) and Grogol Petamburan (24), subagency chief Sudjadi told The Jakarta Post.

Most of the fires occurred in densely-populated areas and affected semi-permanent buildings, he said.

Sudjadi said his office faced several problems, but particularly because traffic jams made it difficult for his limited number of personnel to reach sites in a short amount of time.

“Ideally a unit includes six officers, comprising a chief, a driver and four crew,” he said. However, Sudjadi’s office has only three or four officers per unit.

The subagency now has around 500 officers — half of the ideal figure, he said.

Sudjadi claimed that since 2001 his office had empowered up to 3,000 members of the public by holding regular fire simulations and training volunteers in community units. The office had also distributed extinguishers and alarms to assist in controlling fires in several community units.

The office also faced malfunctioning and limited numbers of fire hydrants. A big city should have one hydrant in every 200 meters, subagency’s operations staff Syukri Bahanan said.

“In West Jakarta not all areas have hydrants,” Sudjadi said. In such cases the fire fighters must use vehicles with pumps, to obtain water from ditches, rivers or lakes. (lnd)