Infant among four dead in restaurant blaze

Infant among four dead in restaurant blaze

JAKARTA (JP): Four people, including a three-year-old boy,
were killed in a fire which gutted a noodle restaurant on Jl.
Mangga Besar VII in West Jakarta early Sunday morning.

All the fatalities were restaurant employees who lived in the
four-story building. The first floor was used for the restaurant
operation, named Bakmi Mangga Besar.

The fire, believed to have been caused by a gas stove
explosion, caused millions of rupiah in material losses. Almost
all the furniture and kitchen equipment, as well as clothing and
other valuable goods were burned,

Restaurant cashier Dumaria Hasugian, said identification of
the victims -- Dessiana, 25, Manukar Hasugian, 17 (Dumaria's
younger brother), Agus Hermanto, 26 and his three-year-old son
Agus Kristia -- was impossible.

The restaurant's owner, Jimmy, was unavailable for comment, as
he was reportedly being questioned by local police.

The blaze happened at 5 a.m. Dumaria said.

"The incident started when Agus Hermanto and his son were
trying to fix gas stoves. As one of the stoves was lit, however,
it suddenly exploded."

Explosion

Another employee, Yunus, who was standing outside the building
when the incident occurred, said he heard a blast from the first
floor and saw flames rapidly spread to the upper floors.

"After the blast, I saw my friends' shadows on the third and
fourth floors running and screaming for help," Yunus, who
suffered minor burns to the face, said.

Witnesses said one of the victims, Dessiana, better known as
Dessi, managed to carry one of her boss' children through the
fire to safety.

However, after placing the child outside the building, she
rushed into the building, disregarding warnings from bystanders.

"No one knows why Dessi insisted on going inside," an aunt,
Elly, said.

She said her niece had plans to marry and had asked her to be
her guardian.

"Dessi had no parents. Her father left her mother early and
the mother died of cancer when Dessi was only seven years old,"
Elly said.

Dessi's only younger sister, Meidi, was adopted by relatives
who moved to Australia.

"She (Dessi) was a kind and tough girl, who never complained
about anything including her harsh life," Elly said.

Another relative Rudy, said he had frequently warned Dessi not
to stay in the shop-house as the Mangga Besar area was not a safe
place, especially for Chinese-Indonesians.

Rudy said Dessi was not afraid to live in the area, believing
that if she was kind to other people similar acts would be
returned to her.

"Near the shop-house, there are gambling dens and
entertainment spots, such as massage parlors and discotheques
which often illegally operate until the early morning," Rudy
said.

He said he had often heard locals issue threats to attack the
entertainment spots and gambling dens if they continued their
illegal business practices.

When he heard the shop-house was burned, he assumed the
disaster was the result of a clash between the entertainment
spot's business owners and residents.

"I was only informed of the truth after my aunt explained that
the fire was caused by an exploding stove."

Rudy said after the post mortem examination was performed,
Dessi would be buried next to her mother's grave at Petamburan
public cemetery. (emf)