Fire destroys 15 houses in Paseban, Central Jakarta

A fire that struck a residential area on Jalan Kramat Sawah 10, RT 008/002, Paseban Urban Village, Senen District, Central Jakarta, on Thursday evening, destroying 15 houses, has been successfully extinguished.

Head of Operations Section of the Central Jakarta Fire and Rescue Sub-Department, Triyanto, said the fire was reported by residents at around 20.00 WIB and officers arrived at the location five minutes later.

“Officers arrived at 20.05 WIB and immediately began extinguishing operations at 20.06 WIB,” Triyanto said in a statement in Jakarta on Friday.

According to reports, the fire was first noticed at around 19.50 WIB by a resident named Masturoh and her family, who were inside their home at the time. Triyanto said the witness saw flames coming from the upper part of the building.

The fire is believed to have started in one of the residents’ houses and then spread to surrounding houses, expanding across two neighbourhood units, namely RT 008 and RT 009.

In RT 008, eight houses were burned, with around 13 families or 52 people affected. In RT 009, seven houses were burned, with around 19 families or 68 people affected.

“There were no fatalities in this incident. In total, around 32 families or 120 people were affected,” he said.

Officers then carried out efforts to localise the fire until it was successfully contained at 21.09 WIB. After that, the cooling process began at 21.20 WIB to ensure there were no remaining hotspots that could potentially reignite the fire.

A total of 32 fire engines with 160 personnel were deployed to handle the blaze. The deployment involved several sectors and posts, including Johar, Senen, Cempaka Putih, Matraman and Kemayoran sectors, as well as TIM, Pegangsaan, Bungur and Cempaka Putih posts.

Meanwhile, the area affected by the fire is estimated to have reached 600 square metres. The value of losses from the incident is still being assessed.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation to determine the source of the flames and the factors that caused the fire to spread to other buildings.

“The extinguishing and cooling process continued until the entire operation was declared complete at 22.49 WIB. The fire handling status was then declared complete or green,” he said.