Fire leaves 1,000 families homeless

Fire leaves 1,000 families homeless

JAKARTA (JP): A fire spread through a dense slum area in the Johar Baru subdistrict in Tanah Tinggi, Central Jakarta, last night.

The fire gutted at least 300 homes, mostly two-story houses. Police said around 1,000 families were left homeless.

Each house had been occupied by at least five people.

No fatalities were reported. One man was injured when he fell off a roof trying to put out the fire.

The Central Jakarta Fire Department received a report of the fire at 6:50 p.m. and the fire was under control by 9 p.m. Central, East and North Jakarta fire departments deployed 30 fire engines to the scene.

Residents of the devastated area on Jl. Sumbadra helped each other rescue belongings and evacuate elderly people, including a paralyzed man, to nearby homes.

The fire also caused panic at a nearby house of H.B. Jassin on Jl. Arimbi. Jassin is a renown literary figure under hospital treatment.

"We're moving things, even though the fire doesn't look too close," a family member said.

People were moved to gardens of nearby large homes. Some residents moved cars out of their garages in fear of the flames.

Traders were seen crying because their goods at a nearby market in Galur were destroyed.

It was believed that the fire was started by an unsupervised, mentally handicapped person, residents said, who had been playing with matches.

The fire occurred only two days after a 60-year-old woman was killed on Sunday in a fire which gutted 217 homes in Sawah Besar, also in Central Jakarta.

In March 60 homes were also destroyed in a fire in the Kampung Rawa area in Johar Baru and 104 families became homeless. (jun/anr)