Fire guts 32 houses, leaves 128 homeless

JAKARTA (JP): A fire gutted 32 houses on Jl. Kayu Mas Utara in East Jakarta yesterday, leaving at least 128 people homeless.

No injuries were reported in the incident and losses were still being calculated last night.

The head of the East Jakarta fire department, Yoyon Ardisoma, told reporters that an electrical short circuit was believed to have caused the blaze.

"Currently we're still investigating the house where the fire started. The electrical wiring in these houses is very poor. No wonder if there's a heat buildup a fire sparks quickly," Yoyon said.

Some 128 residents temporarily took shelter at nearby mosques.

Eight fire crews were deployed to fight the fire which started at 1:49 p.m. and was extinguished at 3:10 p.m.

All of the houses were semipermanent rented buildings belonging to a local resident named Subroto.

Some of the residents, who are mostly small-scale vendors, looked desperate as they tried to save their belongings from the flames.

One of the residents, Amiyitno, said that he had just bought a motorcycle and was washing it when his neighbors started yelling about the fire.

"I couldn't think of anything but saving my wife and children. I almost forgot about the motorcycle. I think it will be a little bit rusty because it was wet by the time I got to save it as the firefighters sprayed water all over the place," he said, adding that he had no place to return to.

"All I've got was burned to the ground," he said while his three children hugged him tightly.

Yesterday's inferno raised the number of fires in the first three-and-a-half months of this year to 201.

Last Wednesday fires in Tomang and Krukut, West Jakarta, destroyed more than 140 houses, leaving some 1,500 people homeless.

Pasar Klender

Meanwhile East Jakarta firefighters evacuated the body yesterday of Atiman, 20, a construction worker who died after parts of a 60-meter-tall water tower wall at Pasar Klender collapsed and buried him.

"We had to work hard to get to Atiman's body because we had to install ladders to reach the high tower. He was already dead when we got there," Sunardi, one of the firefighters, said.

The other victim, Karno, was rushed to a nearby hospital.

The incident happened at about 10 a.m. "but people in the market were rather slow to report it because the site of the incident is far from the main building," he said.

The workers' supervisor only learned of the accident after the two men did not come down for lunch. (edt)