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Jakarta. Those who have been lucky enough to avoid the recent string of deadly gas canister explosions are paying more to ensure their safety — although it is far from guaranteed.

In July, the coordinating minister for people’s welfare, Agung Laksono, announced that the government would help prevent the explosions by providing safer canister hoses and regulators at factory instead of market prices. The hoses were to be offered for Rp 15,000 ($1.70) each and the regulators for Rp 20,000.

But 43-year-old Sumarni, a North Jakarta resident, told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday that she had purchased the government-certified hose and regulator for Rp 60,000 — nearly double the price quoted by the state.

A month later, a leak from her three-kilogram gas canister sparked an explosion that razed her rented home in Tanjung Priok, along with the homes of nine of her neighbors.

Anita, one of the neighbors, said she had lost everything. “We were left with nothing, worrying about how I cook my food after that didn’t even enter my mind,” she said.

Rusmini, who also lives close by, was spared from the disaster but said that she would go back to using more expensive kerosene, which the government subsidized liquefied petroleum gas program was seeking to eliminate in a bid to reduce energy costs.

The community’s lack of faith in both the subsidized gas canisters and the new safety hoses and regulators meant to protect them has been borne out by the number of sales of more expensive gas kits that questionable door-to-door salesmen are ringing up in the area.

Mama Noelan, 29, who lives nearby, said people claiming to have been appointed by state energy firm Pertamina visited her son’s school and offered new “blugas” canisters to the parents at the kindergarten.

“The canister was blue, not green. They said the other canisters exploded because they were green,” she said.

She said the salesmen were selling their four- and five-kilogram blugas canisters for Rp 500,000 each, a steep increase over the three-kilogram subsidized canisters, which sell for just Rp 17,500.

“But they said that we could pay in installments, and the people showed us that the canister was safer,” she said. “They lit it and then they dropped it to show us how much safer it was than the other canisters.”

The whole set, including the stove, hose and regulator, cost Rp 1.5 million, she said