Fire in Kebon Kelapa contained, 114 homes affected
The Central Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency (Sudin Gulkarmat) has contained a fire that struck a densely populated settlement on Jalan Batu Ceper, Kebon Kelapa Urban Village, Gambir District, Central Jakarta, on Monday afternoon.
Head of the Central Jakarta Sudin Gulkarmat, Syarifudin, said personnel were still carrying out cooling operations after the rapidly spreading blaze, fuelled by the density of the housing, was successfully blocked from expanding further.
“The latest update for the fire in Gambir District is that it has been contained; only cooling remains,” Syarifudin said at the fire site on Monday.
He stated that a total of 29 fire engines with 135 personnel were deployed to handle the blaze.
The deployment was increased after personnel detected indications that the fire was spreading to an empty building near the location.
“Personnel deployed initially were 27 units. Earlier, two additional units were added because there were indications of an empty building catching fire, so we added two more units. Thus, the total is 29 units with 135 personnel,” Syarifudin said.
In addition, he said, personnel also requested that electricity supply to the fire area be cut off to prevent the risk of members being electrocuted while fighting the fire.
“It has been done, the power is off,” Syarifudin said regarding the electricity supply around the fire site.
Meanwhile, Central Jakarta Metro Police Deputy Chief AKBP Mirzal said the police deployed around 100 personnel to assist with security and fire handling together with firefighters, the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI), and the community.
“Alhamdulillah, there have been no fatalities among the public as of today, and we are still continuing to collect data on the number of houses burned in the two neighbourhood units (RT),” Mirzal said.
Mirzal said the disaster response team had also prepared a command post for data collection and handling of affected residents.
The location of the post will be coordinated with the sub-district head, urban village head, and local RT and RW administrators.
Regarding the cause of the fire, a forensic identification team will conduct an examination after the cooling process is complete.
“Currently, the forensic identification team is on standby to conduct a sweep once cooling has been carried out,” Mirzal said.