Urban Fire Situation in Indonesia

The article analyses the fire situation in urban areas. The recent monthly and daily fire incident data in the two largest urban areas in Indonesia, Jakarta and Surabaya, for the last 7 years have been analyzed to understand the characteristics of incidents. It is found that most fire incidents occurred in residential buildings. This is caused mainly by electrical faults. The casualties and direct loss are relatively low, while there is a long emergency response time of fire brigade due to heavy traffic congestion and access difficulties. Discussion is focused on the issue of public behavior, fire service performance, urban strategy and building design. It is suggested that specific works on fire protection should be taken by increasing of public awareness, improving of a unified fire incident reports, empowering building law enforcement to the community, and improving the household’s electrical products quality.