Frustrated fire victims smash shop house windows
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)