House in Klungkung Destroyed by Fire, Allegedly Caused by Smoking by Person with Mental Disorder

A house belonging to a resident in Banjar Sari Merta, Negari Village, Banjarangkan District, Klungkung, Bali, caught fire on Monday (31/8/2026) afternoon. The incident is suspected to have been triggered by smoking activity by one of the family members who is a person with a mental disorder (ODGJ).

The Head of the Fire and Rescue Section of the Klungkung Civil Service Police Unit and Fire Department, I Gde Erwan Supriantana, confirmed the incident. His team immediately deployed personnel upon receiving a report from the local village head.

“We received the report at 16.30 WITA from the Negari Village Head. The fleet team immediately moved and arrived at the scene at around 16.55 WITA to carry out handling,” said Gde Erwan to detikBali.

Erwan explained that based on information from the field, the house was occupied by an elderly person and a family member who is a person with a mental disorder. On the morning before the incident, the occupant with the mental disorder had asked for cigarettes to be bought.

At around 16.15 WITA, the person concerned was seen sitting in front of the room. Shortly afterwards, he ran out of the house when the fire suddenly grew large from inside the bale daje building.

Local residents who saw the flames attempted to extinguish the fire with makeshift tools. However, the fire quickly grew until the homeowner, I Gusti Ngurah Arta (40), together with village officials decided to report it to the fire department.

To extinguish the fire, the Klungkung Fire Department deployed Standby Team 1 with 3 fleet units, namely a large elephant unit with a capacity of 6,000 litres, a tenos unit with a capacity of 4,000 litres, and a command car.

“The fire was successfully extinguished and the cooling process was completed at 17.55 WITA. Fortunately, there were no casualties in this incident, while the material loss value is still being assessed,” concluded Erwan.