How to Fight Fires - There have been a lot of fire incidents lately. One of them was the fire that occurred in Jakarta, namely the Parama Apartment Building on Jalan TB Simatupang, on Sunday (14/8/2016) yesterday. 38 firefighters were deployed to extinguish the fire. The fire is thought to have originated on the 3rd floor of the building, while smoke billows up to the 19th floor of the apartment. It is suspected that the cause of the fire at the Parama Apartment was an electrical short circuit. There were no fatalities in this fire incident, but there were 75 victims who were surrounded in the apartment.

Another fire also occurred at the St Moritz Apartment, which is located on Jalan Puri Indah Raya, West Jakarta. The source of the fire came from the main electrical panel in the basement of the apartment. The fire department dispatched 13 fire engines to the scene.

Based on data obtained from the Fire and Rescue Service of DKI Jakarta Province from 2012 to 2016, the biggest cause of fires came from an electric short circuit, the second cause was caused by cigarette butts, and the third caused by a stove. Therefore we must be careful of all kinds of causes of fire.

For those of you who live in apartments, flats, or private homes, you must have worries if a fire happens to you, because you will lose your home and all your valuables and documents. Consider the following ways to prevent fires.

How to prevent fire:

1. Smoke Alarms

  • Install smoke alarms in every room, especially the kitchen, bedroom, and on each floor. For the best protection, you can parallel all smoke alarms in the house, so when one alarm goes off, the other alarms go off too.
  • Check the smoke alarm at least once a month using the test button. Replace smoke alarms every 10 years.
  • Make sure everyone can hear the alarm sound. The sounding smoke alarm is more effective for a sleeping child.
  • Create a house fire evacuation plan. Have at least 2 exits in each room, if possible, and outside the meeting place. Practice the plan twice a year.
  • When the smoke alarm goes off, leave the house immediately and always stay outside.

2. Electric

  • Keep the lamp away from any flammable objects such as lampshades, mattresses, curtains, and clothing.
  • Replace damaged and cracked power cords.
  • Use cable connections only for temporary wiring.
  • Consider using additional circuits made by a skilled electrician.
  • Contact a qualified electrician if you have a problem with the fuse or electric brake dropping or something burning in your power tool.

3. Smoking

  • If you smoke, smoke outdoors or indoors.
  • Use a deep, non-flammable cigarette ashtray.
  • Never smoke in the house when oxygen is used.
  • Store matches in a locked cupboard and out of reach of children.
  • Don't smoke in bed or when you feel sleepy.

4. Kitchen

  • Do not leave the kitchen with the stove on. Turn off the stove and remove the pots and pans. Likewise, if using the oven, remove the food and turn off the oven.
  • Keep the stove away from flammable items, such as rags, oven mitts, and even kitchen curtains.

So what to do if a fire does occur? How to deal with it? Here are some fire fighting tips.

How to deal with fires:

  • Keep calm in the face of fire.
  • If the fire is small and can still be contained, extinguish it immediately with an existing fire extinguisher such as an APAR (Light Fire Extinguisher) or if you don't have an APAR, you can also extinguish the fire by using a burlap sack soaked in water.
  • If the fire is caused by an electrical short circuit, immediately turn off the electricity in the house.
  • Close the room where the fire is located so it doesn't spread to other rooms but don't lock it, to make it easier if you want to extinguish the fire.
  • If the fire is big, get out of the house immediately and ask all the family to leave the house immediately. Don't bother yourself to collect things in the house.
  • Avoid inhaling thick smoke, for example by crawling and breathing by bringing your face closer to the floor, use a wet cloth as a nose cover, this will help you breathe.
  • If you are going through a closed door, carefully check the temperature of the door leaf by pressing the back of your hand. Then check the door handle. If it feels hot move through another route.
  • If necessary, conduct evacuation drills in the event of a fire so that rescue efforts can run faster.
  • Call fire brigade 113, immediately if you cannot control the fire yourself.

For more details you can see video how to prevent the following fires.

Source: Youtube.com

Fires like the example above can happen anytime, anywhere. Therefore it is better if we prevent before it happens. One of them is by implementing ways to prevent fires as above and also protecting your property with Property Insurance from Malacca Trust Insurance the Best Insurance Company in Indonesia. Because the losses caused by fire will be very large, you may lose your home, office, factory and valuables in it.

Property Insurance protects your home and its contents from the risk of fire, lightning, explosion, smoke, theft, flooding, volcanic eruptions, being hit by a vehicle, falling airplanes, debris cleaning costs, riots and others.

Guarantees from other Property Insurance, namely guaranteeing the property belonging to housemaids, accommodation costs for personal accidents, legal responsibilities to individuals and the community, art items, precious stones, to burial costs are guaranteed in the policy.

The expansion of Property Insurance such as earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorism, landslides and shifts in soil layers, riots and riots.

Immediately protect your home or office with Property Insurance. So you don't have to worry about leaving your beloved home and family anymore. For more information contact the Malacca Care Center.

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