Fire guts 300 houses in Bandung

BANDUNG (JP): Fire gutted more than 300 houses in a densely populated area in Central Bandung on Wednesday night. There were no casualties, according to preliminary report.

Two other fires in other parts of the town occurring simultaneously stretched the city's fire fighting capacity to the limit and is blamed partly for the inability to contain the spread of the fire near the Braga shopping center area.

"All my officers were sent out to work tonight," said Swastedjo, chief of the city fire office, who was running the operation in Braga. The other two fires occurred in Sitimunigar and Ujungberung.

A total of 11 fire trucks were sent to Braga and together they took more than five hours to extinguish the blaze, according to witnesses.

Some 400 residents, mostly tenants who are shop assistants in local shops, barely had time to save their belongings as the fire spread quickly, they said.

All the shops in the Braga area were spared from the blaze. Their owners quickly pulled down the shutters at the earliest sign of fire. The narrow Cikapundung stream which divides the shops and the housing area helped in containing the fire although it was virtually dry because of the severe dry season.

Displaced people gathered along the Braga street, watching helplessly as fire consumed their houses and their belongings.

A lucky few managed to save some of their possessions which were scattered on the street.

"This is all I could carry. The rest is gone," said 27-year old Sumarni. (pet/emb)