TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Jakarta Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) chairman Isnawa Adji disclosed that 90 percent of the fires in the capital city occurred due to short circuits. From January to September 2023, there were about a thousand cases of blazes throughout the city.

“Based on the data from the fire agency, there were nearly a thousand cases, while BPBD only recorded about 400 cases,” Isnawa said after monitoring electrical installations in Cengkareng Timur Subdistrict, Cengkareng, West Jakarta, on Thursday, September 21, 2023.

The data was different because the BPBD did not record small fires caused by short circuits but only those that resulted in victims being displaced and required further assistance.

The agency is currently inspecting electrical installations in ten sub-districts with the highest number of fire cases during 2020-2023. One of them is the Cengkareng Timur sub-district, West Jakarta.

Isnawa explained that old cables could trigger sparks. For example, many houses built in the 1970s-1980s with old cables might not be able to bear the current high load of electricity.

During the inspection, Isnawa claimed that his agency often found electrical wires made of tiny copper that were probably old as well.

In addition to short circuits, fires in Jakarta are also triggered by cigarettes, trash burning, people forgetting to turn off their gas stoves, or using gas cylinders in the wrong way. “These are certainly things we need to be concerned about,” Isnawa concluded.

ANTARA

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