Fire razes 51 shacks, injures 4

Fire razes 51 shacks, injures 4

JAKARTA (JP): Fire razed more than 50 shanties and injured
four people on Wednesday evening on Jl. Mangga Besar, Central
Jakarta, local residents said on Thursday.

Although there were no fatalities, the fire caused panic among
the residents in the slum area. A mother, Otih, had to throw her
four-year-old son out of a window from the second floor of a two-
story shanty to save him.

Deddy, a local resident, said three people, identified as
Rachmat, Zainal Abidin and Hamdani, were slightly injured while
trying to put out the fire that burned their homes.

A photographer of the Warta Kota daily, Robinsar Nainggolan,
was also injured when he tried to take a picture of the location
from one of the damaged homes. All four were rushed to nearby
Husada Hospital.

The 51 shanties in the two neighborhood units, occupying about
1,420-square-meters of land and inhabited by nearly 500 people,
were ravaged by the fire which residents said broke out from the
two-story shanty.

Deddy said the fire came from the shanty owned by Ijah after
her daughter, Sri, burned some joss sticks and pieces of paper
for a prayer on Wednesday evening. Their neighbors, who were
playing cards at the time, saw pieces of paper fly through the
window in flames.

"It appeared that Sri could not control the fire when it
spread to the furniture on the second floor," Deddy said, adding
that Otih and her son also lived in the house.

Deddy said Otih panicked because her son was sleeping in the
room where the fire broke out and she ran upstairs to save him.
She cried for help and when residents arrived on the scene, she
threw her son out of the window. Residents caught the boy safely.

Sri and her husband left the area unnoticed and residents
believe she was afraid of being held responsible for the fire.

"Otih lost consciousness after she jumped out of the window
but she was helped by neighbors," he said.

Central Jakarta Police detective Capt. Hendra Suhartiyono said
police were still investigating the fire.

Residents whose shanties were razed by the fire are being
temporarily accommodated at two small mosques and a public
elementary school nearby.

Suprastion said the Central Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian
Red Cross would help the fire victims with food at the emergency
shelter which will operate for the next three days. (06)