BPBD East Kalimantan Investigates Fire Disaster Risk in Residential Areas

JAKARTA - The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of East Kalimantan Province is studying residential fires to complete disaster risk assessment documents.

"The high frequency of residential fire disaster events makes us include this variable in the study," said the Head of BPBD Kaltim Buyung Budi Purnomo in Samarinda, Saturday.

The assessment aims to align regional resilience with the regional medium-term development plan in a more integrated manner.

This document, he said, is a vital instrument for determining the direction of budget policies and targeted mitigation programs.

The coordination meeting also involved a team of experts from Mulawarman University who presented an in-depth study of 12 types of disaster threats in the region, including natural events such as floods, landslides, to routine problems in the form of forest and land fires.

"Focusing on fires in densely populated areas is a new proposal to strengthen the urban community protection system," he said.

The team is currently coordinating with the Fire Department to develop a methodology for mitigating dense areas. The synergy of providing accurate data across agencies is recognized as the most important aspect of the success of the preparation of this document.

All district and city level posts have been instructed to immediately deposit the latest disaster incident history report.

"The collection of data for the Regional Capacity Index next year is also now required to accelerate the process of validating field conditions," he said.

This process also involves experts from the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency to anticipate potential extreme weather.

Manggala Agni was also involved in providing data on village vulnerability to validate hazard and vulnerability maps.

He said that strengthening the legal umbrella through the governor's regulations was needed so that this document was valid as a common working basis.

"Local government organizations such as the Public Works Office and the Health Office will use these guidelines for integrated mitigation," he said.

All stages of preparing the risk matrix script and spatial map are targeted to be completed by the end of August 2026.

"The final document was immediately uploaded to the official government digital platform as a form of data transparency. This open access to information is able to realize the development of East Kalimantan to be resilient to disasters," said Buyung.