Fire guts Mandarin Hotel

The upmarket Mandarin Hotel in Central Jakarta was gutted by fire on Thursday -- one of three fires in the capital.

Other buildings hit included an office building in Tanah Kusir area in South Jakarta and a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) shop in Jelambar, West Jakarta.

No fatalities were reported in the three fires, but two people were seriously injured during the fire in Jelambar.

A security official at the Mandarin Hotel said the fire, which started at about 7 p.m., damaged a restaurant and kitchen on the third floor of the building.

A front office employee, who asked for anonymity, said she did not knew exactly what was going on when the fire broke out.

"What I saw just heavy smoke without fire coming from the third floor," she said.

Johny Pangaribuan, a fire fighter from the Central Jakarta Fire Agency, speculated that the fire started in the kitchen exhaust chimney.

At least 15 fire engines responded to the emergency, managing to contain the fire by about 8 p.m.

The fire in Jelambar broke out at 11 a.m. when an LPG gas container exploded. Two people inside the LPG gas shop were injured.

The fire in South Jakarta, which started at 6:40 a.m., destroyed some rooms on the third and fourth floor of the Kacang Garuda office. "No one was injured in the fire," fire fighter Pujo Sumedi said.

Some 15 fire trucks were sent to the scene but the fire was not extinguished until 1:15 p.m. --JP