Fire razes Bank BNI building in Kota

JAKARTA (JP): A fire burned out the third and fourth floors of a state-owned Bank BNI building in Kota, West Jakarta, at dawn yesterday.

The fire on Jl. Lada 1 at Pinangsia subdistrict started at 4:20 a.m. on the third floor of the left wing of the building and went through the third and fourth floors of the right wing.

Twenty-four fire engines arrived on the scene and managed to extinguish the fire by 7:30 a.m.

The three upper floors of the building were used for bank activities, while the lower floors accommodated the bank's Swadarma School of Management and Information.

President of Bank BNI Widigdo Sukarman said that the burned floors contained the bank's Jakarta-Kota branch, regional branch, internal supervision department, card center, and credit processing office.

"The internal supervision department and credit processing offices were damaged. All our internal documents burned in the fire," Widigdo said during his visit to the fire site.

He said that the cause of the fire was still under police investigation.

"But I think it has something to do with electric cable networks which were being repaired. We had been renovating the building over the past few months," Widigdo said.

He said that he and some employees checked the latest developments of the renovation at 11 p.m. the previous night.

"The fire might have been caused by a torn cable. But let's just wait for the police investigation," Widigdo said.

He said he did not know which room the fire started in and declined to comment about any possibility of sabotage to the building, which was built in 1962.

Widigdo said that the management had yet to estimate financial losses. "But both the building and the equipment are insured."

He urged bank customers not to be worried because none of their documents were destroyed by the fire.

"None of our customers' documents or certificates of deposit were destroyed because the safety boxes were spared," Widigdo said.

A security officer, Suhada, said the fire also decimated 20 classrooms, an English language laboratory, and a computer laboratory of the bank's training center.

"The fire wiped out the newly renovated auditorium furnished with new carpet, chairs, and at least four new 25-inch televisions," Suhada said.

The city's fire department head Suharso said that three explosions occurred on the gutted floors. But they could have possibly originated from the air conditioners' freon, he said.

Suharso said that even though the bank's building was old, it had been equipped with sophisticated fire safety equipment, including fire hydrants.

"The problem was the inability of the building's generator to work automatically. We couldn't generate power for our pumps," he said.

Muchlis Harun, the bank's support unit head, said that the bank was closed for one day yesterday.

"We are stopping bank activity today, including activity in the unaffected building. We will operate normally tomorrow," said Muchlis.

The Jakarta-Kota branch's activities would temporarily be moved to nearby branches, including in Grogol and Ancol's Fantasy World.

"The bank's card center will be moved to our headquarters on Jl. Sudirman," Widigdo said.

He said that all bank activity was expected to be entirely back to normal within three to four days.

Despite the fire, bank employees were still able to cast ballots at polling booths set up at the bank's complex yesterday. The booths were removed during the fire to another building behind the ravaged one. (jun/ste/cst)