Hotel fire kills two in Pekanbaru

Puji Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru

A fire razed Mella Hotel and neighboring buildings here early on Thursday, killing at least two people.

The dead were hotel security guard Rizal, 34, and a 30-year-old driver with the Hikmat travel bureau, Buyung.

The two were asleep in their offices when the fire engulfed the hotel at around 2:20 a.m., eye witnesses said on Thursday.

"Maybe, they slept too soundly so they did not wake up when the fire started," said Tasman, a friend of the victims.

The bodies of the two victims were removed from the scene at 6 a.m. and taken to Pekanbaru General Hospital for an autopsy.

The fire started in Room 5 of the hotel on Jl. Paus and spread quickly, destroying all 14 rooms of the building within 3O minutes.

Four fire trucks were deployed to the scene.

"The fire trucks came late. They arrived at the scene half an hour after the fire started, the buildings had already been destroyed," another eyewitness Marzuki Usman told The Jakarta Post.

Information gathered from the scene revealed the fire was likely caused by a short circuit.

Pekanbaru Police chief of detectives Adj. Comr. Dwiyono said his officers were collecting evidence to be sent to Medan, North Sumatra for laboratory tests.

He confirmed the fire was believed to have started from inside the hotel.

"Because there was a power blackout last (Wednesday) night, the hotel switched on its own generator. But, after the power supply from PLN resumed at around 3 a.m., hotel staff may have been asleep and forgot to switch off the generator, causing a sudden surge in the circuit," Dwiyono said.

He said the police were questioning a number of witnesses over the fire, adding that his office and the hotel owners were calculating the material losses caused.

During the current dry season, the number of fires reported across the country usually increases.

On Aug. 26, fires destroyed dozens of houses in Semarang, Central Java, and Makassar, South Sulawesi, killing a total of seven people and leaving hundreds of others homeless.

Six of the dead, including three family members, were trapped in a fire also believed to have been caused by a short circuit, which razed three shop-houses at dawn in Semarang.

Another body was found after a fire destroyed dozens of houses and one church in Makassar. The fire forced some 450 residents of Jl. Laiya and Jl. Pa'jenekang to flee their homes.