Central Kalimantan Provincial Welfare Bureau Building Catches Fire

The building used as the People’s Welfare Bureau (Kesra) of the Regional Secretariat (Setda) of Central Kalimantan Province (Kalteng) in the governor’s office complex, Palangka Raya City, caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday.

The building that caught fire is located opposite the Al Amanah Mosque, still within the Central Kalimantan Governor’s Office Complex.

“We will evaluate this. This bureau will certainly be relocated temporarily,” said Central Kalimantan Governor Agustiar Sabran while inspecting the fire site.

Based on information gathered at the scene, the fire was first noticed at around 02.10 Western Indonesia Time. A number of fire engines, both government-owned and volunteer fire brigades, moved quickly to extinguish the blaze.

In addition to the governor, Central Kalimantan Regional Secretary Linae Victoria Aden, Head of the People’s Welfare Bureau Rus’ansyah and others were also seen monitoring the site.

“What caught fire was the office of the Central Kalimantan Regional Secretariat’s People’s Welfare Bureau. The authorities will of course conduct an investigation; for now our effort is to extinguish the fire first,” said Central Kalimantan Regional Secretary Linae Victoria Aden.

Meanwhile, Head of the People’s Welfare Bureau Rus’ansyah said almost all rooms in the building were affected by the fire.

He explained that the rooms that caught fire in the building included the bureau head’s room, section heads’ rooms, subsection heads’ rooms, and staff rooms.

“Almost all rooms caught fire. There is the bureau head’s room, section heads’ rooms, subsection heads’ rooms and so on. Including all our staff there, their rooms were divided up,” he said.

According to him, based on the current condition at the site, it is not yet known which items could be salvaged. Inspection of the condition of goods and documents can only be carried out after the fire is completely extinguished and the police examination process is completed.

Regarding the initial point where the fire started, Rus’ansyah admitted he did not yet know for certain. He said he had only just arrived at the site after the fire had already broken out.

From observations at the scene at around 04.25 Western Indonesia Time, although the fire appeared to have been extinguished, firefighters were still at the location.