Frustrated fire victims smash shop house windows

JAKARTA (JP): More than 200 houses were gutted by fire in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta, yesterday as residents vented their frustration over the late arrival of firefighters by smashing windows of nearby shop houses.

Dozens of patients at the nearby Husada hospital on Jl. Mangga Besar had to be evacuated to another part of the hospital. But no fatalities were reported.

Residents on Jl. Budi Rahayu, Mangga Dua Selatan, reported the fire at about 2 p.m. Later they complained that fire engines had taken an hour to arrive.

"I've lost all of my belongings, except this T-shirt and pants because the firefighters came too late," a resident said.

The fire was extinguished at 5 p.m.

Central Jakarta Fire Brigade Chief Freddy Alling said his personnel had arrived eight minutes after the fire had been reported by telephone. But the fire engines had first gone to houses in another part of the road to where residents who made the phone call had lived.

Access to the fire had been easier from Jl. Budi Rahayu, facing Jl. Dr. Suratmo, Freddy said.

Angry residents broke a wall separating their houses on Jl. Budi Rahayu from a shop-house complex, Ruko 66, on Jl. Pangeran Jayakarta, to make way for fire trucks.

Residents got angrier when a fire truck trying to extinguish the fire through the broken wall ran out of water.

Mostly young residents threw stones at windows of five new three-story shop houses owned by PT Agung Sedayu when the firefighters abandoned their truck.

A few electronic items in the shops were damaged, an employee said.

Agung Sedayu owns the Harco electronics center on Jl. Mangga Dua, which was destroyed by fire on April 4.

Soldiers stopped the residents vandalizing the fire truck.

Freddy said firefighters had used water from the Ciliwung river which was at least 200 meters from the fire.

Some impatient residents tried to grab hoses from the fire fighters to salvage their homes.

Freddy complained that the residents had hampered the firefighters. "They don't know how to put out a fire effectively."

Some residents threw stones at their own homes, which Freddy said was a "traditional" way to help extinguish a fire.

Freddy said two injured residents had been rushed to nearby Husada Hospital on Jl. Mangga Besar.

The fire, which started at about 1:30 p.m, was believed to have started in one of the houses. The fire spread to seven community units in two neighborhoods.

Residents said the fire was probably started by an exploding kerosene stove.

Twenty-seven fire trucks, including two from the Army headquarters, helped extinguish the blaze.

At around 8 p.m. Saturday, another fire destroyed a two-story shop house on Jl. Perniagaan in Tambora, West Jakarta. The fire caused an estimated Rp 400 million (US$166,666) loss. (jun/Erik Sumarauw)