Fire Safety Regulation in Indonesia

LILY TAMBUNAN
Building Technology Research Group
Department of Architecture, Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Indonesia

The regulation of fire safety in Indonesia is based on the hierarchy of regulations in Indonesia,
starting from the highest, namely the Building Law (UUBG) 28/2002. Under the UUBG there are
several more detailed regulations as guidelines for implementing the UUBG, including Minister of
Public Works Regulation (Permen PU) 29/2006, Permen PU 26/2008, and Permen PU 25/2008.
The Minister of Public Works Regulations were then revealed in the form of regional regulations
and governor regulations which is prepared based on the conditions and local needs of each region,
both at the Provincial and City / Regency levels. For examples, the Perda related to fire safety for
DKI Jakarta includes Perda 7/2010 concerning Buildings, Perda 8/2008 concerning Prevention and
Control of Fire Hazards, Pergub DKI 200/2015 concerning Technical Requirements for Fire
Extinguisher Access.

The following is a brief explanation of the substance of key regulations in fire safety in Indonesia:

A. BUILDING LAW 28/2002

This law regulates the provisions concerning building which includes functions, requirements,
organization, community roles, and guidance. The functions of the building include residential,
religious, business, social and cultural functions, as well as special functions. The residential
function building includes buildings for single-living houses, row houses, flats, and temporary
residences. The function of the building must be in accordance with the allotment of location
stipulated in the Regional Regulations concerning the Regency / City Spatial Planning. The function
of the building is determined by the Regional Government and included in the building permit. In
UUBG no 28/2002 it is required that each building must meet administrative requirements and
technical requirements in accordance with the functions of the building. Technical requirements
include building requirements and building reliability requirements. Reliability requirements for

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building are determined by the function of the building. Fire safety requirements are included in
the scope of building reliability requirements.

In the UUBG, the requirements for building capacity in preventing and overcoming fire hazards
consist of two systems, namely passive protection systems and active protection systems. Passive
protection systems include the ability to stabilize structures and elements, fire resistant
construction, compartmentalization and separation, and protection on existing openings to hold
and limit the speed of fire and smoke spreading. While active protection systems include the ability
of equipment to detect and extinguish fires, control fumes, and facilitate fire rescue. In the UUBG it
is required that all buildings, except houses, must be equipped with a passive and active protection
system. Provisions regarding the system for safeguarding fire hazards in the UUBG are further
regulated in Permen PU 29/2006 and Permen PU 26/2008.

B. REGULATION OF THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORK NUMBER 29/2006 concerning

This guideline is intended as a reference in fulfilling the technical requirements of buildings for the
implementation of building functions that are safe, healthy, comfortable, and provide facilities for
residents and / or users accessibility of buildings. The scope of this Technical Guide covers the
functions, classifications and technical requirements of the building.

In this regulation the functions of the building are divided into two, namely the function of
occupancy and function of the building. Residential function is a building with the main function as
a place where humans live in the form of single residential buildings, plural residential buildings,
mixed residential buildings, temporary residential buildings.

Building is classified by function, level of complexity, level of permanence, level of risk of fire,
earthquake zoning, location, altitude, and ownership. Based on function, buildings are classified
into Class 1 to 10. Example, Class 4: Mixed residential buildings, Class 5: Office buildings, Class 8:
Laboratory, industrial buildings, factories, and/or car workshops, and so on.

Classification based on the level of complexity includes: simple building, non-simple building, and
special building. Classification based on the level of permanence includes: permanent buildings,
semi-permanent buildings, and temporary or temporary buildings. Classification based on the level
of fire risk includes: buildings with high fire risk level, moderate fire risk level, and low fire risk

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level. Location based classification includes: building in a dense, medium and tenuous location.
Height-based classification includes: high-rise buildings, medium-rise buildings, and low-rise
buildings. Ownership classifications include: state-owned buildings, business buildings owned by
individuals, and individual buildings.

In this regulation also included requirements for building capacity against fire hazards include
aspects: Passive protection system requirements, Active protection system requirements, Exit and
accessibility requirements for fire suppression, Emergency lighting, Exit / exit signs, and danger
warning system, and so on. To fulfill these various requirements in this regulation, the Indonesian
National Standard (SNI) is included which must be a reference to follow. For example, for the
Passive Protection System must follow SNI 03-1736-2000 on the procedures for planning a passive
protection system for the prevention of fire hazards in buildings, SNI 03-1746-2000 concerning the
procedures for planning and installing road facilities outside to save against fire hazards in
building. For Active Protection Systems, for example, it must refer, among others, to SNI 03-3989-
2000 concerning the procedures for planning and installing automatic sprinkler systems for the
prevention of fire hazards in buildings, SNI 03-6571-2001 concerning Fire smoke control systems
in buildings, and so on. The requirements for active and passive protection systems only apply
to buildings, not for single-residence and simple row houses.

C. REGULATION OF THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORK NUMBER 26/2008 concerning

The difference between Permen PU 29/2006 and Permen PU 26/2008 is Permen PU 29/2006 is a
technical guideline covering all aspects of reliability of building functions which include health,
ease, comfort and fire safety. In addition, the substance of the technical requirements for building
fire safety in Permen PU 29/2006 is only the principal. Permen PU 26/2008 regulates fire safety
requirements for buildings and the environment in more detail and specific. Therefore Permen PU
26/2008 is the main reference for fulfilling building fire safety requirements in Indonesia. The
requirements listed in this regulation mainly refer to US standard, the National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA) 101. A small part of the substance of the regulation was adopted from the
Australia Building Code (ABC).

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In Permen PU 26/2008 also stipulated the requirements of Fire Resistance Rate (FRR) for building
construction components according to their functions. To find out the FRR, building materials or
building structural components must be tested at the Fire Laboratory in Housing and Settlement
Research Centers (Puskim) in Bandung. The testing standard used is SNI 1741: 2008, which refers
to ISO 834-1: 1999 Fire Resistance Tests - Elements of building construction and JIS A 1304-1994,
Methods of fire resistance tests for structural parts of buildings. After testing, a test result report
will be provided which lists the FRR achieved by the product being tested.