New service for owners of fire extinguishers

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A fire safety and security products distribution company on Thursday launched a new service in Jakarta and eight other cities that will cut the time it takes residents to refill their fire extinguishers.

Gunnebo Indonesia, also known as PT Indolok Bakti Utama, has introduced 10 "refill cars" in Jakarta, Medan, Pekanbaru, Palembang, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Denpasar and Balikpapan, according to Shirley Tamtomo, an executive with the company.

Two of the cars will operate in Jakarta, and one each in the other eight cities.

"The cars will allow our company to do the refilling process without having to bring the extinguishers to the company's depository," Shirley said during a launch ceremony here for the new service.

"Customers only need to call us. Then we will come and do the refilling process on the spot."

Shirley said it used to take two to three days for the company to complete the entire refilling process, because it had to pick up the expired fire extinguishers from each customer, bring the extinguishers to the company's depository, refill the devices and deliver them back to the customers.

The refill cars are equipped with everything required for the refill process, and can serve different types of extinguishers, whether they use halotron, powder or foam.

"We will review the effectiveness of these cars within a year. If it is considered a success, then we will expand the car deployment to the other 25 company branches all over Indonesia," Shirley said.

The company's country manager, Hindra C. Kurniawan, said the firm had been established in Jakarta since 1972, and had around 40,000 to 50,000 customers, including factories, shopping centers, banks, hospitals, office buildings and hotels.

"Every year, we have between 3,000 and 4,000 new customers nationwide, with around 5,000 to 7,000 devices needed to be refilled every month," he said.

Shirley said fire extinguishers should be refilled at least every two years.

"Until now, we import the powder and foam medium (for extinguishers) from Spain, and the halotron from the United States. Refill prices depend on the medium and the device's size. For a two-kilogram powder refill, it will cost around Rp 100,000," Shirley said.

"There are also lots of people who have fire extinguishers, but not all of them know how to use them. Our trained employees will teach these people how to use and maintain the devices."

According to the city's fire agency, there were 853 fires in Jakarta last year, down from the 902 in 2006. Forty-five of the fires in 2007 occurred in high population density areas. (uwi/tif)