Fires leave nearly 6,000 homeless in two months

Fires leave nearly 6,000 homeless in two months

JAKARTA (JP): Fires in January and February left 5,973 city
people homeless. Four thousand of those lost homes in two fires
in the Kelapa Gading district, North Jakarta.

The fire department recorded 5,701 homes lost in 35 fires up
to Feb. 20, while in January, 42 fires destroyed 272 people's
homes.

On Saturday victims of the Feb. 12 fire in the Pegangsaan Dua
subdistrict, Kelapa Gading, were still living in tents, on land
flooded by rains. Mineral water and food were being distributed.
The district office has also distributed T-shirts, sarongs,
praying attire for women and school uniforms.

Local authority officials said the residents, many of whom are
scrap iron collectors, were not allowed to rebuild their 450
homes as the land belonged to the city.

In other fires this month, parts of two factories and 13
warehouses went up in smoke.

Eight of the warehouses, along with 10 houses, were gutted on
Feb. 12 in Cilincing, North Jakarta, the same day as one of the
Kelapa Gading fires.

Most of the fires were started by short circuits or stove
explosions, the records showed.

Four fires this month and nine in January are still under
investigation, including the Jan. 27 to Jan. 28 fires which
destroyed 97 kiosks in the King Plaza and 230 kiosks in the Harco
Plaza, both in the Pasar Baru shopping center.

The records listed one fire was deliberately lit in Pasar
Minggu, South Jakarta, when a man gutted his uncle's house with
five liters of gasoline.

Six people died in fires in January. Two died in Sawah Besar,
Central Jakarta, Jan. 13 in a fire which destroyed 37 homes,
while four others were victims of the Jan. 8 fire which hit a
four story building in the Tamansari district, West Jakarta.
(anr)