Fire razes five shop-houses

JAKARTA: Fire razed five shop-houses at Jl. Dahlia Indah Blok GA/8 in the Harapan Indah housing complex in Bekasi on Friday.

The five buildings belonged to Anang Agus Setiawan, an employee of a state enterprise, who lives on Jl. Lores 11 in Kampung Ambon, Rawamangun in East Jakarta.

The police suspected the fire was caused by a short circuit in one of the five shop-houses, which housed a photocopy machine, photography equipment, documents and flammable substances.

The fire also destroyed the four other shop-houses quickly and burned a Suzuki motorcycle with license plate B 6935 WA.

Twelve firefighters and two fire trucks rushed to the scene but still needed three hours to extinguish the fire.

The five shop-houses were rented by Milham Siregar (28), Fahtoni (31), Ahin (50), Margo (27) and Andi Syarifudin (31).

There were no casualties in the fire but the owner suffered hundreds of millions of rupiah in losses. The Bekasi Police are investigating the case, said Second. Insp. Harun Sidik. -- Antara