John Edwards – Fifty-three people died after fire engulfed a karaoke bar in the Indonesia port city of Palembang on the island of Sumatra on the evening of July 7. As the fire swept through the five-storey Heppi Karaoke bar, people were trapped people inside because the building had just one stairwell and the only elevator had failed.
Firefighters used explosives to blast a hole through walls on the upper floors to allow people to escape. Most people died due to the smoke and heat, but some jumped to their deaths trying to flee the inferno. The fire, the worst in decades in Palembang, was so intense that many of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition.
From the second storey up, the building was a maze of small rooms with different bars and restaurants on each level. Yet it had only one entrance and no emergency exits or fire stairs. Firefighters suspect that an electrical fault started the blaze but, regardless of the precise cause, the building was simply a disaster waiting to happen. The owner had reportedly violated the building permit by adding two floors without permission.
Police arrested the bar's manager in Jakarta and returned him to Palembang for questioning while a search is underway for the building's owner. However, it is not simply the owner and manager who are to blame for the tragedy. Similar firetraps exist across Indonesia.
In the rush for development even the most basic fire safety standards are either ignored or sidestepped. According to the head of the Jakarta Fire Agency, Johnny Pangaribuan, almost half the 542 high-rise buildings in Jakarta have no proper fire safety systems. Even government departments fail to comply-the 19-storey Ministry of National Education has had blocked fire exits.
Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, provides a glimpse of the conditions nationally. The fire department admitted that about 60 percent of Jakarta's 1,271 entertainment centres lack "adequate life saving equipment and fire protection systems". Many lock their fire doors to assist security monitoring of the premises.
Fire is a threat not just in high-rise building but also in the densely-populated slums that have sprung up throughout Jakarta over the past 20 years as villagers have come to the city seeking work. Every year, blazes destroy large numbers of slum dwellings, together with the residents' possessions. At the start of this month, 700 people were left homeless by a fire at Pendongkelan in East Jakarta.
In June, three separate fires destroyed 20 buildings, 100 houses and 17 houses respectively. The last fire resulted in the deaths of a family of three, including a young girl. Such fires are a monthly occurrence in Jakarta with other cities experiencing similar incidents.
The Building Control Agency stated that last year there were over 772 fires in Jakarta alone (or more than two per day), with 18 people killed and 305 buildings gutted. Up to 80 percent occur in slum areas where fire devastation is compounded by inflammable building materials and poorly-designed construction, as well as access difficulties for fire crews and the lack of fire hydrants.
Jakarta, with a population of over eight million people, has 83 fire stations and some 2,500 firefighters. However the city has only 1,000 fire hydrants and not all operate properly.
Fire safety regulations exist for high-rise buildings but the fines are so small that owners simply pay them and business continues. Despite a recent increase in the maximum fine to 5 million rupiah ($US550) the head of the Jakarta Building Control Agency, Jumhama Tjakrawirya, told the Jakarta Post that courts usually impose fines of only 300,000 rupiah ($US33), which owners can easily afford.
The fire at the Palembang karaoke bar is just part of a broader problem of safety being sacrificed for the sake of profit in the name of development. While the fire authorities have promised a crackdown on buildings not complying with the regulations, such statements, like the arrest of the manager, are designed to divert attention from the real causes of such tragedies.