The Jakarta Fire Handling and Rescue (Gulkarmat) Agency has said the capital needs more fire stations to speed up response time in case of fire.

We continue to add fire stations as mandated by regional regulation

Based on data obtained, in 2021, his side added 8 fire stations, namely Pari Island Fire Station, Mangga Besar Fire Station, Glodok Fire Station, Pesanggrahan Sector Fire Station, Manggarai Fire Station, Ragunan 2 Fire Station, Kelapa Dua Wetan Fire Station, and Pondok Ranggon Fire Station.

Jakarta Gulkarmat Agency Head Satriadi Gulkarmat mentioned that in 2022, his side proposed an additional fire station in Jatinegara.

"Not all from a total of 8 fire stations in 2021 are from our budget. Some are from residents. So, they provide a place for the fire station, while we deploy personnel and fire fighting units," he explained, Tuesday (4/12).

According to the Jakarta Bylaw (Perda) No. 8/2008 on Prevention and Management of Fire Hazards, it regulated each urban village should have at least one fire station.

According to the data, the current number of fire stations was still not enough for the existing urban village. There were only 150 fire stations from a total of 267 urban villages in Jakarta.

"The problem is unavailable land," he asserted.

Regarding this issue, he took the initiative to reduce the budget for land acquisition for building fire stations. Instead, his side would use old local government buildings and unused/vacant land for fire stations.

He added that efforts to add fire stations were carried out in conjunction with an inventory of assets belonging to Regional Work Units (SKPD) that could still be utilized.

"We continue to add fire stations as mandated by regional regulation. The more stations, the better," he said.