100 houses gutted in W. Jakarta's Tanah Sereal

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

At least 300 people were left homeless on the fourth day of Ramadhan after fire razed some 100 houses in Tanah Sereal subdistrict, Tambora district, West Jakarta, on Thursday.

Strong winds and difficulty in accessing the area hampered the firemen's efforts to extinguish the blaze, which started at about 1 p.m.

So far, no fatalities have been reported.

"The fire was totally extinguished by 5 p.m. after we deployed 18 fire trucks. The firemen were in action for nearly four hours," Mardoso, a firemen from the Jakarta Fire Department told The Jakarta Post.

The fire victims are temporarily sheltering in nearby mosques and tents have been erected along the roadsides.

The cause of the fire, which affected four neighborhood units, remains unclear. West Jakarta Police are still investigating the case.

Some residents complained over the late arrival of the fire brigade. They said that if the firefighters had arrived quickly at the seen, losses could have been minimized.

Last week, two separate fires razed residential areas in Jelambar subdistrict, West Jakarta. The causes of these fires are also still a mystery.