BI employees shocked by fire<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The fire that gutted the top floors of one of
\nBank Indonesia's new 25-story twin towers in Central Jakarta
\nkilling 15 people yesterday was described by most employees there
\nas a horrible inferno.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of employees were working in the building when the
\nfire started and many said it would not be easy to extinguish the
\nnightmare from their memories.<\/p>\n
Farida, 30, who is seven months pregnant, was in a toilet in
\nher office on the 18th floor when the fire took place.<\/p>\n
\"A thick, black smoke suddenly came out from the ventilation
\nsystem. When I came out of the bathroom, the office was already
\nempty,\" she said after being admitted for medical treatment at a
\nnearby clinic.<\/p>\n
Through the window, she saw a crowd of people below waving at
\nher and shouting \"fire, fire\".<\/p>\n
Farida, who had just moved to the new building three months
\nago, suddenly realized she was trapped in a high-rise that was on
\nfire.<\/p>\n
She rushed to the emergency stairs after finding the elevator
\nnot functioning.<\/p>\n
She could only reach the 11th floor before fatigue overcame
\nher.<\/p>\n
\"I can only remember a fireman picking me up and carrying me
\nto the lobby where my friends were waiting,\" Farida recalled.<\/p>\n
On the higher floors, hundreds of frightened employees,
\nincluding cleaning service personnel and construction workers,
\nrushed to the stairs creating panic and confusion.<\/p>\n
\"The only thing that I could remember was my two children at
\nhome. The thought of getting home to them stirred me to
\nimmediately rush downstairs,\" said Betty J. Panirusa, whose
\noffice was on the 20th floor.<\/p>\n
She said the fire was the worst she had ever witnessed.<\/p>\n
She saw hundreds of her colleagues running from the blaze to
\nsafety while anxious friends below could only watch.<\/p>\n
Betty said she met Erika, the only female victim killed in the
\nfire, in the last minutes before the secretary died in an
\nelevator with two other victims on the 25th floor.<\/p>\n
Erika, who worked on the 22nd floor, reportedly safely reached
\nthe 20th floor while attempting to escape. But she went back
\nupstairs, telling Betty that she wanted to retrieve her boss'
\nbag.<\/p>\n
\"That's the last time I saw mbak (sister) Erika,\" Betty said.
\n\"Before she went back upstairs, she even told us to hurry and
\nsave ourselves,\" she recalled.<\/p>\n
Isa, a cleaning service employee, said that she realized there
\nwas a fire only after seeing thick smoke coming out from an air
\nventilator on the 20th floor.<\/p>\n
\"I just stayed calm in the beginning because I thought it was
\njust a technical problem,\" she said. \"I only tried to escape
\nafter my friends told me that the building was on fire.\"<\/p>\n
The fire also amazed Hasanuddin, a fireman at the scene.<\/p>\n
\"The smoke was too thick up there. It was only from the smell
\nthat I realized that I was stepping on a dead body,\" he recalled.<\/p>\n
The fire, which was quickly reported on by several television
\nstations while in progress, also attracted relatives of the
\nbank's employees and workers to the scene.<\/p>\n
Fila, 20, of the Reni Jaya housing complex in Pamulang, South
\nJakarta, said that she looked for her husband, Maman Sulaiman,
\nwho she said was a construction worker at the building.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by her two-year-old daughter, Fila was unable to
\nfind out the fate of her husband as evening fell due to a lack of
\ninformation available. (04)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bi-employees-shocked-by-fire-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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