TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jakarta turns to robots in battle against fires
New toy: A firefighter demonstrates the functions of the Dok-Ing MVF-5 U3 multifunctional firefighting robot in Duri Pulo, Central Jakarta, on Thursday
Change Size
N
ew toy: A firefighter demonstrates the functions of the Dok-Ing MVF-5 U3 multifunctional firefighting robot in Duri Pulo, Central Jakarta, on Thursday. (JP/Riand Alfiandy)
Having joined the Jakarta firefighter squad in 2004 right after graduating high school, Jumadi, 34, said fires no longer intimidated him. To him, stepping into a life-threatening situation to save people’s lives is a noble job he wants to keep doing as long as he can.
“Thank God, I have never been badly hurt in fire operations. But I lost my colleague and best friend to a fire,” he said.
The father of three recalled spending downtime at home playing volleyball when a fire broke out in a densely populated neighborhood of Jembatan Besi in Tambora, West Jakarta, on one afternoon in December 2009.
He later received a call at 11 p.m. that day informing him that three firefighters on his squad were trapped inside a blazing semipermanent building in a narrow alley after the roof caved in.
He went to the hospital in the middle of the night only to find that his dear friend Sulistyo Putranto had died in the line of duty. Sulistyo was only 24. Two other firefighters survived the incident.
“If I told you this story a few years ago, I would not be able to finish it as I would have broken down in tears. But it’s OK now; this is God’s will,” said Jumadi who is now stationed at the Central Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency.
The 2009 Jembatan Besi inferno that razed nearly 200 houses was only one incident among others in which firefighters had been injured or died across Jakarta, a large urban city that continued to face the peril of fires every year.
This year alone, Jakarta has recorded 145 fires between Jan. 1 until Feb. 7. The city, however, has seen a decrease in the number of fires in the past few years, from 2,055 cases in 2017 to 1,528 in 2018. Last year, Jakarta recorded 1,355 fires, the lowest number in three years.
The Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency is turning to a number of new technologies with advanced features to assist firefighters and reduce the life-threatening risks of the job in one of the most complex urban environments in the country.
The agency recently purchased Dok-Ing MVF-5 U3 and LUF 60 — the first two remote-controlled firefighting vehicles to complement its fleet of more than 2,000 firefighters, around 200 fire engines and 10 ambulances.
The Rp 32 billion (US$2,343) Dok-Ing MVF-5 U3 is a Croatian-made multifunctional firefighting robot equipped with two storage units for 2,500 liters of water and 500 l of foam, and can spray water up to 55 meters and foam up to 45 m and push 10 ton objects.
The robot can be operated with a remote control within a 1.5-kilometer radius, allowing the operators to remain outside the danger zone. It also features nine high-resolution cameras and a waterproof thermal camera that allows it to operate and remove obstacles in reduced visibility.
It is also designed for operations in hazardous areas such as oil refinery terminals, chemical and petrochemical storage, flammable material storage and nuclear power plants.
The Rp 8 billion Austrian-made LUF 60 remote-controlled fire extinguishing vehicle, meanwhile, can be operated within a range of 300 m and is able to atomize a jet of water of 2,400 l per minute at a distance of 60 m.
Its 104 kilowatt-power engines allow it to work for more than six hours nonstop.
With a length of 2.3 m and a width of 1.35 m, the LUF 60 is smaller than the MVF-5 and is designed for narrow areas such as MRT tunnels or densely populated neighborhoods.
The two robotic fire extinguisher vehicles will be stationed somewhere near MRT tunnels and LRT stations within a range of eight minute travel after dispatch, according to Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency head Satriadi Gunawan.
“Following rapid development and urbanization in Jakarta, I believe it is very important for the fire agency to have a better-prepared fire mitigation plan. And these robotic machines can help reduce the safety risk our firefighters face while performing their duties,” Satriadi said on Thursday.
Twelve Jakarta firefighters have been trained to operate and maintain the robots. The Jakarta administration also plans to expand its robotic fleet by procuring more variants of firefighting robots in the near future, Satriadi said, without going into detail. (trn)
