Fire at Padangpanjang mayor's office

Kasparman The Jakarta Post Padangpanjang

Fire destroyed parts of the Padangpanjang mayor's office on Jl. Sutan Sjahrir in Padangpanjang, West Sumatra, early Friday morning, paralyzing the office's activities for the whole day, a report said.

The fire, which gutted a number of rooms, excluding those of the mayor's and the city secretary's, and destroyed office equipment and incinerated all documents inside, occurred at 3 a.m.

Witnesses said the incident was first spotted by a motorist passing in front of the office. He then blew his horn to wake up the office's guards.

Five fire engines, which were sent to the site from Padangpanjang and neighboring Bukittinggi municipality and Tanah Datar regency, had difficulty putting out the blaze. The distance from the fire department's offices to the mayor's office and strong winds contributed to the firefighters' difficulty in extinguishing the fire.

Padangpanjang Mayor Johannes Tamin told reporters later in the day that the fire destroyed the rooms of the office's legal affairs department, administrative affairs department, social affairs department, general affairs department, economic affairs department and treasury department, while dozens of computers were destroyed.

"There was nothing we could remove from the burning rooms ... The fire happened so suddenly," Tamin said, adding that his office had yet to calculate the losses, including the petty cash kept in the safe.

There is no information available on when the office's employees will resume work, pending the mayor's decision on an alternative building to be temporarily used to provide services to the public.

"The only available and usable space is the office's meeting hall," the mayor said.

Chief of the East Padangpanjang Police substation First Insp. Rustam Bima said the police had not yet determined the cause of the fire.

"We're still questioning the two security guards on duty last night -- Hasan Basri and Epi," Bima said on Friday.