JP/3/Fire

JP/3/Fire

Fire makes 1,000 homeless and razes shopping center

JAKARTA (JP): More than 1,000 people lost their houses in a
fire at the slum area in West Tebet Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday evening over 100 shopowners lost their business
sites when a fire gutted the Aldiron Plaza in the Blok M business
center.

No casualties were reported at either fire, both located in
South Jakarta.

Spokesman of the South Jakarta mayoralty, Mohamad Yanis, said
that 230 families had lost their houses following the three-hour
fire which razed some one-hectare slum area in the West Tebet
subdistrict.

Yanis added that the government and the Indonesian Red Cross
had set up a communal kitchen to prepare hot meals for the
victims. They had also built two temporary shelters at nearby
public buildings.

Yanis, however, said that South Jakarta acting mayor Zaenal
Arifin had ordered the local administration to bar residents from
rebuilding the area on the grounds that the plots do not belong
to them.

"They occupied the area which, according to the master plan,
is slated to be a green belt zone," the spokesman said.

The mayoralty had yet to implement the master plan pending
instructions from the governor.

The mayoralty had reportedly appropriated 17 hectares of the
proposed 22-hectare green belt zone, which include the burned
one-hectare slum area.

Toran said that he was told by witnesses that the fire started
at 10.30 a.m., following an explosion of a gas stove at a
furniture shop.

The South Jakarta police precinct is still running a further
investigation, he added.

An official of the South Jakarta fire department said that 20
fire engines arrived on the scene to extinguish the fire and calm
down local residents who were hysterically running through the
flames to rescue their belongings.

Aldiron

At the famous Blok M business center, hundreds of shopowners
of the five-story Aldiron Plaza lost their property when a fire
razed the third and fourth floor of the shopping center at around
10:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The police believe that the fire resulted from an electricity
short circuit in a neon advertising sign at one of the stores at
the third floor.

No casualties were reported, but several stores on the first
and second floors were damaged by the firemen in their bid to
blockade the fire.

The amount of loss of goods and property has yet to be
calculated but it might reach into millions of rupiahs.

The first and second floor are allocated for jewelry and
fashion shops, the third floor for food stalls, the fourth for
books and stationery items and the fifth for offices.

Most of the shopowners, shopkeepers and office employees of
the Aldiron Plaza only heard about the fire when they arrived the
morning after for work.

"I had no idea about the fire until I arrived this morning for
work," said Melly, a shopowner.

As of Wednesday afternoon, police have kept the plaza cordoned
off while a team from the police forensic laboratory conducted
their investigation inside.

So far, police have questioned three local security guards
believed to have been near the scene when the fire took place.
(09/bsr)