Fire Service Reveals Access Obstacles in Extinguishing Empty Building Fire in Gambir, Central Jakarta

A fire broke out in a residential area and an empty building in the Gambir district of Central Jakarta. Cooling operations are still underway at the empty building.

“This is now in the cooling phase. We call it overhaul. We are trying to open up and dismantle parts of the structure because we are concerned that fire may still be burning inside, which could lead to a resurgence of flames,” said Bayu Meghantara, Head of the Jakarta Fire and Rescue Service, at the scene on Monday (31/8/2026).

Bayu revealed that a hot spot had remained on the 13th floor of the building. Firefighters subsequently extinguished it.

“Just now there was still one pile of burning material, and it has been extinguished by our colleagues. What remains at this location is on the 13th floor,” he said.

Bayu explained that difficult access to the building had hampered firefighting efforts. He was forced to deploy a bronto skylift, which also proved unable to enter the site.

“Access is quite difficult for our personnel, but we have tried using the bronto skylift, yet even that could not get in. So we were forced to do it manually,” he explained.

The fire service then used ladders they had available to climb the building. Bayu said his team deployed all available personnel to extinguish the fire.

“So we used the ladders we have, our single ladders. We used ladders and worked together with all our personnel to extinguish the fire,” he added.

As previously reported, a fire broke out in a residential area in Gambir, Central Jakarta. A total of 114 homes were affected by the incident.

According to an information board seen by detikcom at the scene on Monday (31/8/2026) at 18.00, 114 homes were affected. In addition, 880 people from 310 family cards were impacted by the fire.

The fire was reported by residents to the fire service at 13.40 WIB. Firefighting operations began at 13.46 WIB.