Apartment for fire victims to be built

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso promised to build a low-cost apartment in Gunung Sahari, Central Jakarta, where about 500 people lost their homes in a fire Monday.

"The apartment will give you a more decent environment than the old crowded housing complex," he said while visiting the fire victims Wednesday.

The fire, which started at 6:45 a.m. on Monday and was extinguished by 9 a.m., left 98 families from Jl. Garuda Ujung homeless. The victims are being accommodated at the nearby Metropolitan Theater.

Firefighters believed the blaze was caused by an electrical short circuit in a house belonging to a man called Agustinus.

Sutiyoso promised to help the victims with basic commodities, including books for the children. (ind)