Fire destroys 300 kiosks in Petisah market, Medan

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

At least 300 kiosks selling second hand clothes and household items at the Petisah market on Jl. Nibung Raya in downtown Medan, North Sumatra, were destroyed by fire at dawn on Sunday. No fatalities were reported, but losses are believed to amount to at least Rp 1 billion.

Local police assumed the fire had been caused by an electrical short circuit.

"We drew this conclusion based on statements from three of the market's night guards. For the time being we are going by their statements," said Brig. Sehat Tarigan of the Medan Baru Police precinct, whose office is located around 50 meters from the market.

Three night guards, Sofar Hutagalung, Basri Tampubolon and Walter Nainggolan, were questioned by police soon after the fire.

The head of the Petisah Market Tax Office, Syahrul Saragih, also speculated that an electrical short circuit had caused the fire.

"We've reported electricity problems in the market many times to the state electricity company (PLN). But PLN failed to respond to our reports properly," Syahrul told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Most of the victims of the fire were housewives selling second hand clothes and household items.

Many of them were weeping as they looked at what remained of their 2 x 2 meter kiosks on Sunday afternoon.

Some of them assumed that the fire had been deliberately lit.

"It seems odd that the plastic chair was not burnt while everything in my kiosk was reduced to ash," said Br Sihombing, a second hand clothing seller, pointing to a plastic chair, which she claimed had been in the kiosk when she locked up the day before.

She said she had been told about the fire only at around 9 a.m. or some five hours after the blaze had taken place. "I decided not to go to church. I headed for the market and found everything had gone."

She was one of a large number of kiosk owners who were still at the market.

They said they planned to stage a protest demanding that the night guards be held responsible for the fire.

Last December 400 residents' houses at the Kampung Kubur Petisah, not far from the Petisah market, were destroyed by fire. Police have yet to find a cause for the blaze.

Traders had been occupying the 300 temporary kiosks for the past five years while they waited for the construction of a permanent shopping center called Petisah II, which was supposed to become the best in Medan.

Spokesman for the kiosk owners Dorris Napitupulu said that the total losses could reach billions of rupiah.

"The traders could save nothing from their kiosks as the fire gutted the complex. Many traders, whose residences are a long way from the market, also used the kiosks as their homes," Dorris said.

The traders would be accommodated in temporary kiosks free of charge.

"The local administration must assume responsibility for the continuation of the traders' businesses after the fire. All the traders were subject to various levies for sanitation, security et cetera imposed by the local administration."