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