168 Fires Occurred In Makassar In 8 Months, Dominated By Short Circuits And Leaking Gas

Illustration of leaking gas ignited by fire. (Doc of DJPB Kemenkeu)

Makassar City Fire Department (Damkar) recorded 168 fire incidents in its area in eight months or from January to August 2023.

"The fire was dominated by a short circuit or an electrical short circuit of 76 cases, followed by a gas leak of 16 cases and three cases of negligence in the stove, 43 cases of alang-alang fire, and 30 other cases," said Head of the Makassar Fire Service Muhammad Hasanuddin in Makassar, South Sulawesi (Sulsel), Sunday, September 10, confiscated by Antara.

The impact of the fire also scorched as many as 98 residential units, 44 kiosks and shops, 21 units of company or industrial buildings and nine warehouse units, six units of vehicles and 65 other property items.

In addition, it was recorded that 363 people with 169 heads of families had to lose their homes. The burned area area is 16,680 square meters with material losses estimated at more than Rp13.3 billion.

So far, there have been no casualties in a number of residential areas spread across 15 sub-districts throughout Makassar City, but 20 people were injured at the time of the incident.

In order to prevent a fire accident, his party continues to urge all city residents to continue to increase their vigilance and be careful and be aware of potential fires that could arise at any time.

"Moreover, in this dry season, we are entering very extreme weather, drought and even the impact of El Nino can cause fires, it is everywhere. Moreover, the potential is there, with small fires I think it is easy to grow," he said.

Hasanuddin added that since early September 2023 there have been several incidents of fire fighting, including the minang-alang in the past week of burning, allegedly a drought of influence from El Nino.

"From our data, over the past week, more than 20 times the fire was extinguished, not only residents' houses in dense settlements as well as minang-alang grass burned due to extreme hot weather caused by El Nino," he said.