Fire razes Bank BNI building in Kota
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)