Fire kills mother, three children

Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

A fire razed several houses in a slum in the country's second largest city of Surabaya early on Monday, killing a woman and her three children, and severely injuring her husband, police and residents said.

The four victims were burned to death in the fire that occurred at around 1 a.m., as neighbors were unable to rescue them.

The housewife was identified as Purwanti, 37, while her three children were named Nia, 17, Heni, 12, and Fendi, 4.

However, Purwanti's husband Chusein managed to survive the inferno, when the fire destroyed his house on Jl. Kedung Cowek No. 88, Surabaya, East Java.

Chusein is in the intensive care unit of Dr. Soetomo General Hospital in Surabaya. He had been rumored to have died at 12:45 a.m on Monday.

However, Dr. Urip Murtedjo of the hospital denied the rumors, saying Chusein was still alive after hours in comma.

"No, Chusein has not died. His condition is improving and he is conscious," Urip said.

Police are investigating the cause of the fire.

The fire was believed to have been triggered by a lamp falling into containers filled with gasoline. Chusein is a gasoline vendor.

Eye witnesses said the conflagration started from the back part of Chusein's rented house, and quickly spread to seven other homes in the Gedung Cowek neighborhood.

"We tried to put out the fire but failed," Wawan, one of the eye witnesses, said.

He said he and his neighbors attempted to extinguish the blaze while waking up Chusein and his family members who were asleep.

"We also called a firefighting team that later arrived at the scene," Wawan.

He said the neighbors luckily managed to rescue Chusein from the blaze but failed to rescue his wife and three children.

Purwanti and her children were found trapped inside the blaze, Wawan said.

After the fire was extinguished, local residents discovered the body of Purwanti embracing her youngest son Fendi.

Detik.com online news service reported that Chusein had been using a kerosene lamp in his house after the local state-owned electricity company PT PLN cut off power because of his failure to pay charges.

"When the fire started, we didn't hear anyone screaming for help from inside the two bedrooms. Maybe they were asleep," Niko Sujarwanto, another eye witness, was quoted as saying.

"We were unable to rescue any of the four because the fire blocked us from entering the house," Sujarwanto added.