Fires dash hopes in Jakarta during Idul Fitri

Fires dash hopes in Jakarta during Idul Fitri

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The Idul Fitri celebration was over for Parlan, 36, as he stared
at what was left of his house on Jl. Kampung Muka in Lodan, North
Jakarta, after a massive fire early on Saturday.

"I don't know what all this means. We had just bought the
house after saving little by little for years. Now it's gone. But
I will keep praying that we can rebuild the house soon," he told
The Jakarta Post.

It's due to God's blessings, he said, that his wife and their
three children were unharmed by the fire.

"Most of our neighbors had gone to their hometowns (for Idul
Fitri) so I don't know where the fire came from. I suspect that
there was a short circuit in one of our neighbors' houses," he
added.

North Jakarta fire agency had to send 37 fire trucks with some
200 firemen to the location.

The fire began at 3:45 a.m., and the firemen struggled for
over four hours to extinguish it.

"Luckily, there were no fatalities in the incident. We believe
that it was caused by a short circuit in one of the houses,"
Saptoko, firefighter unit leader, told the Post later in the
afternoon.

The fire, which destroyed 295 houses in the neighborhood, was
only one of two fires in North Jakarta that day.

Later at 10 a.m., the fire agency had to send 12 fire trucks
to Cilincing to extinguish a fire in a container depot there. The
fire was extinguished in just over half an hour. No fatalities
were reported although several buildings were razed.

Aside from the Saturday's fires, thousands of other families,
most of which left their homes vacant to visit their hometowns
lost their houses and dozens of others were seriously injured in
at least five fires across Greater Jakarta during Idul Fitri on
Thursday and Friday.

Dozens of families lost their homes and kiosks on Thursday
after fire razed Cimanggis Market in Depok, West Java while later
in the evening, three people were injured in a fire that razed
dozens of kiosks in Senen market, Central Jakarta.

At least three more fires took place on Friday. At 10 a.m.,
fire razed 27 houses in Jelambar, West Jakarta while in the
afternoon 37 houses burned down in a fire in Taman Sari, also in
West Jakarta. Dozens of people were injured in both incidents
although no fatalities were reported.

Later in the evening, dozens of houses in Tegal Alur,
Cengkareng, Tangerang regency, were also reduced to ashes after a
blaze in a neighborhood there.

"There were no fatalities in any of the fires because most
houses were empty. Most families had left their homes to visit
their hometowns in the provinces or for recreational activities.
However, we believe many of them did not disconnect their
appliances," Soeparno, field coordinator at the Jakarta fire
agency, told the Post.

Fires and robberies are common when houses are left vacant
during the Idul Fitri holiday, despite warnings by the
authorities for the public to secure their houses before leaving.