Fire destroys shop-house, kills 13

MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi (JP): Thirteen people died when a fierce fire destroyed a shop-house selling electronic goods here on Thursday.

Police records say that four under-five-year-old toddlers and a pregnant woman were among the fatalities.

Makassar Police chief Sr. Supt. Aryanto Boedihardjo said the fire, the worst in the city in terms of fatalities, started at 5 a.m. local time on the second floor of the three-story building.

He said three families and two shop assistants lived in the shop-house.

"There were no survivors. Most of the victims suffocated, while two of them died after jumping from the third floor," he said.

Firefighters said they found it difficult to put out the fire as the building had no emergency stairs and all windows had iron bars.

"We could not get into the building and we found no opening in the wall through which to aim the water hose," a firefighter said.

"Police Mobile Brigade officers came and broke the wall to give us access to the building."

Three fire trucks were deployed and the fire was totally under control after two hours.

"We found no signs of arson. We are going to investigate further," Aryanto said to The Jakarta Post.

Makassar Mayor Amiruddin Maula said the building owner had been negligent not to construct an emergency stairway.

He said that most of the windows of shops and shop-houses in the city had iron bars to prevent vandalism. "Most of shop-house owners are Chinese-Indonesians. They were targets of rioting, therefore they installed iron bars on the windows of their homes and shops," the mayor said. "I call on building owners not to install iron bars, and construct emergency stairs." (27/sur)