Double blaze at Klender Plaza

Double blaze at Klender Plaza

JAKARTA (JP): The top floor of the Klender Plaza shopping arcade on Jalan I. Gusti Ngurah Rai, in the east of the city, caught fire twice yesterday morning.

According to fire fighters, the first blaze, which started at around 2:30 a.m., took 25 fire brigade units an hour and a half to extinguish.

But four hours later the fire reignited. Seven units of the fire brigade struggled to tame the flames for more than three hours before it was finally extinguished at 11:20 a.m., a fire department official told The Jakarta Post.

Hundreds of employees of the shopping complex were sent home yesterday morning, the Suara Pembaruan daily reported.

The fifth floor of the building, where a discotheque and theater were located, was gutted. The daily also reported that fire fighters managed to prevent the fire spreading to lower floors, saving supermarkets and general stores on the first through third floors, and a book store and restaurant on the fourth floor.

Both the cause and cost of the fire remain unknown.(14)