【A-PAD Indonesia】 Disaster Education through Content Creation

2024.07.28

A-PAD Indonesia held a disaster education training on July 8 – 9 in Jakarta. 23 participants from various backgrounds participated including students, the tourism and transportation industries, civic groups, and professional photographers. The participants created social media content after the training to reflect on their learning on fire-related disasters.

“Disaster Channel” shares information and knowledge about disasters to increase awareness about disaster preparedness. Disaster Channel is focusing on creating content from multiple perspectives. As part of these efforts, this training was held for the purpose of disseminating content on the theme of disaster education. This was the second training session, following the one held in January on the theme of flood disasters, and was held jointly with the Special Jakarta Provincial Disaster Management Bureau and the Provincial Fire Department.

In 2023, more than 2,000 houses were destroyed in Jakarta, leaving at least 8,000 residents homeless. The main causes were short circuits and electrical leakage in the wires. From 2018 to 2022, an average of 1,500 fires occurred in Jakarta each year. In 2019, there were more than 2,000 fires equating to 4 to 5 fires a day. The purpose of the training is to understand the main causes of fires that occur in Jakarta and mitigation measures.

Walking through a densely populated areas of Tambora District

On Day 1, the participants went to the Jakarta Special Provincial Disaster Management Office to learn about the history of fires and the dispatch and role of the fire brigade. They also walked through the densely populated residential area of Tambora District in West Jakarta, where remnants of houses and vehicles destroyed by fire still remained. Local union leaders, firefighters, and the local disaster prevention bureau’s emergency response team shared their experience and challenges around extinguishing fires.

They also visited a fire brigade operated and managed by the local government in Tambora District, where they learned about fire engines and also toured the Disaster Response Center and Disaster Education Simulation Center of the Jakarta Regional Disaster Management Bureau.

After the training, a fire actually broke out right next to the Jakarta Special Provincial Disaster Management Office and firefighters were dispatched. Some of the training participants went out together and observed actual firefighting.

Firefighter Training

On Day 2, the participants learned about the facilities and the role of the training center at the Jakarta Special Provincial Fire Training Center. They also observed firefighter training and learned about the history of the fire department from the Batavian (Dutch colonial) era at the Fire Museum.