Criticized For Handling Fire Cases, South Jakarta Damkar Admits That They Have Few Members Because Every Year Someone Retires

Firefighters/Photo: Jehan

JAKARTA - Head of the DKI Jakarta Gulkarmat Service, Satriadi Gunawan, admitted that the number of firefighters and their officers is still not ideal. This is what he considers to be one of the obstacles to the speed of response time in handling fire incidents.

Satriadi's statement is in line with the statement by the Head of the Operations Section for the South Jakarta Gulkarmat Service Sub-agency, Ruwanto. Ruwanto said, so far the problem has been the lack of personnel.

Because, continued Rukwanto, every year there must be personnel entering retirement age.

"Personnel are getting less and less each year as members enter retirement," said Rukwanto in a conversation with VOI, Tuesday, January 31.

However, his party continues to handle fire cases quickly, according to the estimated time target that has been determined.

"Respontime 15 minutes Arriving at the TKP (crime scene)," he said.

Rukwanto also admitted that so far the fire extinguishers were in adequate condition and could still be used properly.

"For fire extinguishers, it is sufficient because each person already has their own PPE," he said.

Previously, the DPRD DKI Jakarta criticized the speed of response time or response time for DKI Jakarta Fire Management and Rescue (Gulkarmat) officers who had not met expectations.

This was disclosed in a working meeting of Commission A DPRD DKI Jakarta with the DKI Jakarta Gulkarmat Agency on Monday, January 30.

Head of the DKI Jakarta Gulkarmat Service, Satriadi Gunawan, admitted that the number of firefighters and their officers is still not ideal.

Referring to Regional Regulation (Perda) Number 8 of 2008 concerning the Prevention and Management of Fire Hazards, each kelurahan must have one fire extinguisher post.

"The regional regulation mandates one urban village and one fire station to pursue a response time to handle fires. At the moment we still haven't met that standard. We only have 139 fire stations which should be in 267 urban villages," said Satriadi to reporters, Monday, January 30.

Apart from that, continued Satriadi, the number of firefighters in Jakarta is still at 40 percent of the ideal number. Currently, there are around 4,000 Gulkarmat Service personnel.