House Destroyed by Fire, Residents in Tambora Resign to Celebrating Eid in Evacuation Centres

Jakarta — Soleh (65), a fire victim from Tanah Sereal, Tambora, West Jakarta, has resigned himself to celebrating Eid al-Fitr at an evacuation centre after his home was destroyed by fire.

“Well, I’ll celebrate Eid here in the evacuation centre then, where else can I go?” said Soleh when met by Kompas.com at the evacuation area in Tambora on Monday, 16 March 2026.

Soleh, along with his wife, three children, and four grandchildren — a total of eleven people — were forced to accept their fate living in evacuation tents.

“We could go back to our hometown, but given the situation, we feel reluctant to leave. We’d prefer to stay here, look after the house, and we’re also afraid,” he said.

Soleh explained that his two-and-a-half-storey red-brick house, which he had occupied since 1979, is now reduced to nothing but blackened walls.

He said the fire originated on the first floor at the corner of a garment factory building located directly beside his house.

“The fire came from the first floor of the garment factory. The factory was right next to my house, the flames spread to it, and my house was completely destroyed, nothing was left at all,” said Soleh.

Soleh regretted the slow initial response from the factory, which allowed the fire to grow and spread to neighbouring homes.

According to his account, factory workers initially failed to act as panic set in, allowing the fire to grow before finally calling for outside help.

“It seems they panicked, so they just ignored it. But then, as time went on, it got bigger and bigger, and only then did they finally call for help from the community,” he said.

The factory’s storage of garment manufacturing materials caused the fire to spread extremely rapidly and became uncontrollable.

A series of explosions were heard emanating from inside the building, followed by a massive blast that caused the tall structure to eventually collapse onto neighbouring homes.

“There were explosions, several of them, I couldn’t count how many. The last one was the biggest, and the building came down right away, collapsing onto the houses. We didn’t know what chemicals were involved, we had no idea, we were just confused,” said Soleh.