Fire razes 120 homes in North Sumatra<\/p>\n
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan<\/p>\n
A fire raced through the Medan Maimoon subdistrict on Monday
\nmorning destroying approximately 120 homes, though there were no
\ncasualties.<\/p>\n
An eyewitness, Lily, said the fire, which is believed to have
\nstarted in a vacant house owned by a woman identified as Rosita
\nSembiring, began at about 7:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
Lily said truant junior high school and high school students
\noften gathered in the house, which had been vacant for some time,
\nto gamble.<\/p>\n
Before the fire began on Monday, she said that she saw a
\nnumber of students inside the house smoking, making her suspect
\nthe fire was caused by one of their cigarette butts.<\/p>\n
\"When the fire started I saw three (students), apparently from
\na junior high school and one of whom I recognized as a boy named
\nYuga, run away from the house toward a bridge in the nearby
\nroad,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Lily said local residents tried to put out the fire using
\nwater from the nearby Deli river, but were unable to extinguish
\nthe fast-moving conflagration.<\/p>\n
\"The fire grew so big so fast the residents could not put it
\nout,\" Lily told The Jakarta Post on Monday.<\/p>\n
Half an hour after the blaze began, some 12 fire trucks
\narrived in the area, but a narrow road prevented them from
\ngetting close to the blaze. All the firefighters were able to do
\nwas to spray water on the flames from a distance of some 250
\nmeters.<\/p>\n
As residents fled their homes, a number of looters moved into
\nthe area to rob the vacated houses. Local residents caught a
\nnumber of the looters and were only stopped from burning them to
\ndeath by the local police.<\/p>\n
The residents almost turned their wrath on Medan Baru Police
\nchief Adj. Comr. Wira when they were stopped from executing the
\nlooters.<\/p>\n
The Hamdan subdistrict head, Nurlie, said those who lost their
\nhomes in the fire would be temporarily accommodated in several
\nnearby locations, including the Balai Keselamatan Orphanage,
\nschools and mosques.<\/p>\n
He said the fire caused material losses of hundreds of million
\nof rupiah, but the local administration had promised to help the
\nvictims rebuild their lives.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/fire-razes-120-homes-in-north-sumatra-1447893297",
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