N. Jakarta fire kills two people

JAKARTA (JP): Two teenagers died while trying to extinguish a blaze which destroyed 162 houses on Jl. Bandengan Utara, in Penjaringan district, North Jakarta, yesterday afternoon.

Witnesses said that the victims, identified as Ervan, 14, and Wahyu, 19, were electrocuted by electrical cables on the roof of a building.

Their bodies were taken to Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital for a postmortem examination.

The fire, which left hundreds of residents homeless, started about 11:30 a.m and is believed to have originated in a house belonging to a roadside vendor called Tukimin.

"A kerosene stove which exploded in the house may have sparked the fire," Madnyo, a firefighter, said.

Madnyo said that Tukimin may have forgotten to turn off his stove when he left for work in the morning.

The fire spread quickly to adjacent houses which were mostly made from wood, he said.

North Jakarta Fire Department deployed 20 fire engines but a lack of water hampered fire fighting because the slum area, near the Pluit toll road, was far away from water resources, he said.

Narrow access roads and densely packed housing posed further difficulties for fire engines, Madnyo said.

And panicking residents tried to grab hoses off firefighters to extinguish the blaze themselves, further impeding fire- fighting operations, he said.

The fire department managed to extinguish the blaze after about three hours.

Only a few residents could salvage their belongings and put them in a safe place.

The fire is believed to have caused hundreds of million of rupiah in damage. (jun)