Fire burns hundreds houses

Fire burns hundreds houses

JAKARTA: A fire in Penjaringan district, North Jakarta,
destroyed 300 family homes early Friday.

The fire was caused by a short circuit shortly after midnight
in the house of Ny. Eeng, a cake maker, and quickly spread to the
300 other mainly wooden homes, Antara reported.

The slum area had only narrow alleys which made it practically
impossible for firefighters' trucks to reach the fire. It took
them almost five hours to extinguish the blaze.

There was no reported human casualties, but material losses
were estimated at hundreds of million of rupiah.

The subdistrict administration has not yet decided where to
accommodate the fire victims, but some local residents said that
they could be housed in a nearby elementary school.

Penjaringan area has suffered a number of serious fires,
blamed largely on poor electricity supplies and homes made of
flammible materials.--JP