Fire destroys hundreds of shops in Senen

JAKARTA (JP): A fire that started on Thursday night and burned for more than 15 hours has gutted hundreds of shops in the basement of the three-story Senen shopping center in Central Jakarta.

At 3 p.m. on Friday, fire fighters equipped with oxygen masks were still struggling to find the source of the fire and extinguish it in the hazy, dark basement.

Traders who own shops in the stories above the fire blighted basement worked to rescue their stock until late yesterday evening.

No fatalities were reported, but traders at the usually crowded shopping center estimated damage running into billions of rupiah had been caused.

Data from the city market firm PD Pasar Jaya, which runs the shopping center, revealed the basement was home to at least 1,087 restaurants and shops offering good ranging from cloth, garments and household goods to gas bottles.

Hundreds of tailors and shops selling electronic goods are located on the second story and a similarly large number of automobile spare part stores are on the third floor.

The top story is used as a car parking lot facility by the management of the building, which lies adjacent to the Atrium plaza.

The fire was first reported to Central Jakarta Fire Department at 11:35 p.m. on Thursday. Seventeen fire engines and 150 fire fighters were hastily dispatched to the scene.

The head of the fire department, Robert Kamasi, said locked rolling doors and inflammable goods in the shops had hindered efforts to bring the blaze under control.

"But Alhamdullilah (Thanks to God) we have taken out most of the gas bottles and only three exploded inside (the center)," Robert said.

In the evening, Robert said he feared that hot air from the burning basement could ignite goods in shops on the upper stories, where shop owners and their employees were still busy evacuating their merchandises.

Nobody had obeyed his warning to stay off the upper floors of the mall, despite the danger which it posed to their lives.

"The traders insisted that they had to save their goods or else they would not be able to feed their children anymore," he said.

The shopping center was gutted by major fires in 1974 and 1995.

Despite the two previous fires, the building's management had still failed to equip the shopping center with adequate fire safety equipment, Robert said.

"I could only find one broken hydrant in front of this building," he said.

Robert also blamed PD Pasar Jaya for being careless enough to allow people to sell gas bottles and cook in the basement of the shopping center.

"The management should not allow any cooking activities or the sale of gas in the basement," he said.

Gerda Rosalina, the head of the shopping center's management, was not available for comment yesterday.

Even before the smoke had cleared, some enterprising traders denied their day's business had set up stalls along nearby streets with goods they had managed to salvage.

A tired looking Anton, 31, was trying to sell stained clothes at the roadside.

"I have to try to sell everything that I managed to save. Who knows, somebody might want to buy them and help me to earn a living.

"It's better than standing around watching the fire fighters," he added.

Anton arrived at the burning site early on Friday morning after being notified of the fire by his fellow traders.

With the help of fire fighters, he managed to save some of his stock from the burning basement.

"I only managed to save eight bags of clothes, the other twelve were gone," he recalled.

Police and military personnel set up a tight guard on all access roads to the building in an attempt to avoid looting. (emf)