Fire Hazards at Government Buildings Difficult to Monitor

Kompas/Heru Sri Kumoro

Police Headquarters Forensic and Laboratory Officers prepare to enter the main building of the Attorney General\'s Office, Jakarta, which caught fire, Sunday (23/8/2020). The officer will examine and investigate the cause of the fire that occurred on Saturday (22/8/2020) night.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The feasibility of government buildings in Jakarta are not under full supervision. As a result, safety hazards are often unmonitored for buildings in the nation’s capital, including the main building in the compound of the Attorney General\'s Office (AGO) that caught fire on 22 Aug. 2020.

Building and infrastructure maintenance must be reported every six months to the Jakarta administration as stipulated in Law No. 28/2002 on buildings. Under the law, building managers are required to report regularly on facilities maintenance to the Jakarta human settlements, spatial planning and land agency. The agency then reviews the building’s safety records.

However, as the law is not implemented fully, it is difficult to monitor the building management and maintenance.

Also read: Police Check CCTV, Public Awaits Result

“The condition of most government buildings is not reported to us. Even if it was, it is reported by the general affairs division, which does not understand the aspects of building safety,” agency head Heru Hermawanto said in Jakarta on Monday (28/9/2020).

According to Heru, only a few government buildings and national banks regularly submit their building maintenance reports.

As a matter of fact, maintenance reports on government buildings are extremely important, because most are older than 10 years and some are more than a century old. Old structures have a high risk of fire and other disasters.

In such structures, fire risk mitigation should be a priority. Fire extinguishers, fire sprinkler system installations and pillar hydrants must always function properly.

"If the system is functioning, fire can be prevented from spreading to other buildings," said Heru.

KOMPAS/KURNIA YUNITA RAHAYU

Soot covers the southern face of the main building at the Attorney General’s Office in South Jakarta on Sunday (27/9/2020). The damage to the southern face of the building was minor compared to the northern face, where the fire first broke out. On the third floor of the building’s southern face was the office of Pinangki Sirna Malasari, a former prosecutor who is now on trial for bribery and in aiding and abetting Bank Bali graft convict Joko Tjandra in evading justice.

Firefighting efforts at the main building of the AGO compound were hampered by the lack of an on-site water supply. Platoon B head Dedy of the South Jakarta Kebayoran Baru Sector II Fire Station, who led the first team to arrive at the location, said that the hose connected to the outdoor hydrant did not work.

In fact, under Law No. 28/2002 on buildings, the fire hydrant system is an integral part of the fire protection system in a building. A similar requirement is also stipulated in Public Works Ministerial Regulation No. 26/2008 on the technical requirements for fire protection systems in buildings.

"We have to get water from the National Police Headquarters and a water tank outside the building," said Dedy. As a result, it took more than 11 hours to extinguish the fire.

Warning bell for fire mitigation

Some of the major fires occurred as a result of unreliable [fire] protection systems

Safety and occupational health lecturer Fatma Lestari at the University of Indonesia Public Health School, who studies fire risks, emphasized that the AGO fire was a warning bell that pointed to the need to improve fire mitigation efforts. At the end of 2019, about 70 percent of all government buildings did not meet the fire safety standards, she said.

Fatma said that a fire safety audit should be conducted for all government buildings. If the building had an extremely high fire risk, its fire protection system must be reliable and functioning well. "Some of the major fires occurred as a result of unreliable [fire] protection systems," she said.

Also read:AGO Fire Protection System Weak

Of the 1,563 fires that occurred in January-September 2019 in Jakarta, 228 fires occurred at public and commercial buildings, including 12 industrial buildings, according to the records of the Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency.

KOMPAS/KURNIA YUNITA RAHAYU

Ruined office furniture fills the gutted Sasana Andrawina Hall, which stored employee records that have now “vanished”, in the main building of the Attorney General’s Office in South Jakarta, Sunday (27/9/2020). Fire broke out at the building on 22 Aug. 2020.

Meanwhile, investigators from the National Police’s criminal investigation unit have yet to determine the cause of the fire at the AGO main building. The investigators have summoned six witnesses of varying backgrounds.

“The cause of the fire is still in process, still being evaluated,” said public information bureau head Brig. Gen. Awi Setiyono of the National Police\'s public relations division.

Also read: Eleven Hours to Put Out AGO Fire

Meanwhile, public relations head Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police declined to comment when asked whether police officers were involved in providing security at the AGO building prior to the fire incident.

The National Police provides assistance in securing vital state assets, including structural assets, as regulated in National Police Chief Regulation No. 13/2017 on providing security assistance to vital objects.