East Halmahera PUPR Office Destroyed by Fire, No Casualties Reported

A massive fire occurred at the Public Works and Spatial Planning (PUPR) office of East Halmahera Regency, North Maluku Province, located in Soagi Malaha Village, Kota Maba District, at around 12:00 WIT on Thursday (10/9).

“It is true that a fire occurred at the East Halmahera PUPR Office,” confirmed Ipda Ajwan, Head of Public Relations for the East Halmahera Police, on Friday (11/9).

He stated that thick plumes of smoke initially emerged from the roof of the building. Shortly after, flames rose high, consuming the entire roof and spreading to the walls of the structure.

Employees arriving for work panicked and scrambled out of the building to save themselves.

Local residents at the scene attempted to assist using whatever rudimentary equipment was available. However, spontaneous firefighting efforts by residents were unsuccessful due to the distance of the water source and strong winds, which caused the fire to intensify and incinerate the entire building.

Officers from the Kota Maba Police Sub-station, who arrived at the scene, were unable to do much initially and subsequently contacted the fire brigade to attend the incident.

The flames were only successfully extinguished three hours after the fire engines arrived at the location to spray the hotspots.

“Staff and local residents assisted the firefighters in an effort to extinguish the fire; it took about three hours before the flames could be put out,” he said.

He added that while there were no casualties in the fire at the East Halmahera PUPR office, the losses are estimated to reach Rp1 billion.