Fire razes Pondok Gede shopping center
Fire razes Pondok Gede shopping center
JAKARTA (JP): Fire razed a three-story shopping center on Jl.
Raya Pondok Gede in East Jakarta on Wednesday.
The fire left the building totally ruined, but no causalities
were reported in the incident.
The fire started at around 5:30 a.m. and lasted until around
5:30 p.m.. Twelve fire engines from the East Jakarta and Bekasi
fire departments were still trying to put out the fire until late
in the afternoon although they managed to stop it from spreading.
"The two upper floors, where the Matahari department store and
the Naga Supermarket were located, are already ruined," a staffer
at the Bekasi firefighter unit Suyitno told The Jakarta Post.
"We still believe that there are no casualties as the incident
happened at dawn and probably all security officers managed to
get out of the building," he said.
Suyitno added that the fire might have been triggered by a
short-circuit in an area between the two floors. "However,
officers are still trying to gather information."
The first floor of the building houses dozens of small stores
and an office of Lippo Bank.
There is no immediate information from the building owner over
the material losses resulting from the fire.
"We had trouble putting out the fire because two of the three
water hydrants were out of order, while two nine-kilogram fire
extinguishers were past their 1996 expiry date," Suyitno, who
happened to conduct an inspection of the building on Friday,
said.
"The only available water hydrant has been used to water the
plants in the front yard of the building. So, we had to take the
water from a nearby river located some 300 meters away from the
building," he added.
He said that he had warned the building management about the
outdated fire equipment as the building only has several windows
and is full of flammable materials, including clothing and
leather goods.
"However, the owner ignored the warning and now the building
is totally burned," he said.
Satunet.com reported that some scavengers and people from the
surrounding areas tried to enter the burning building as they
were impatient to take the remaining goods and other material
from the razed stores.
Police officers, with the help of several members of the
Indonesian Air Force Special Forces, had to drive these people
away and even threatened to shoot if they insisted on going into
the building.
The police arrested a scavenger, identified as Suhadi, for
threatening the police with a saber as he tried to follow his
friends into the building.
Some people, who managed to enter the building, took clothing
materials, but security officers managed to control the
situation.
The most recent major fire occurred in April when 93 two-story
plywood shanties and a mosque in densely populated Jl. B Raya,
Karang Anyar subdistrict, Sawah Besar area, were razed. Some 324
people were left homeless.
Firefighters managed to put out the fire after three hours.
The effort involved 22 fire engines. (dja)
JAKARTA (JP): Fire razed a three-story shopping center on Jl.
Raya Pondok Gede in East Jakarta on Wednesday.
The fire left the building totally ruined, but no causalities
were reported in the incident.
The fire started at around 5:30 a.m. and lasted until around
5:30 p.m.. Twelve fire engines from the East Jakarta and Bekasi
fire departments were still trying to put out the fire until late
in the afternoon although they managed to stop it from spreading.
"The two upper floors, where the Matahari department store and
the Naga Supermarket were located, are already ruined," a staffer
at the Bekasi firefighter unit Suyitno told The Jakarta Post.
"We still believe that there are no casualties as the incident
happened at dawn and probably all security officers managed to
get out of the building," he said.
Suyitno added that the fire might have been triggered by a
short-circuit in an area between the two floors. "However,
officers are still trying to gather information."
The first floor of the building houses dozens of small stores
and an office of Lippo Bank.
There is no immediate information from the building owner over
the material losses resulting from the fire.
"We had trouble putting out the fire because two of the three
water hydrants were out of order, while two nine-kilogram fire
extinguishers were past their 1996 expiry date," Suyitno, who
happened to conduct an inspection of the building on Friday,
said.
"The only available water hydrant has been used to water the
plants in the front yard of the building. So, we had to take the
water from a nearby river located some 300 meters away from the
building," he added.
He said that he had warned the building management about the
outdated fire equipment as the building only has several windows
and is full of flammable materials, including clothing and
leather goods.
"However, the owner ignored the warning and now the building
is totally burned," he said.
Satunet.com reported that some scavengers and people from the
surrounding areas tried to enter the burning building as they
were impatient to take the remaining goods and other material
from the razed stores.
Police officers, with the help of several members of the
Indonesian Air Force Special Forces, had to drive these people
away and even threatened to shoot if they insisted on going into
the building.
The police arrested a scavenger, identified as Suhadi, for
threatening the police with a saber as he tried to follow his
friends into the building.
Some people, who managed to enter the building, took clothing
materials, but security officers managed to control the
situation.
The most recent major fire occurred in April when 93 two-story
plywood shanties and a mosque in densely populated Jl. B Raya,
Karang Anyar subdistrict, Sawah Besar area, were razed. Some 324
people were left homeless.
Firefighters managed to put out the fire after three hours.
The effort involved 22 fire engines. (dja)