Permata Plaza evacuated after fire

JAKARTA (JP): Hundreds of frightened tenants in the 13-story Permata Plaza on the city's main thoroughfare of Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta fled the building yesterday morning after black smoke was seen coming out of its basement.

No fatalities were reported. Witnesses and firemen said the fire was first detected near the kitchen of Fuling restaurant in the basement at 10:30 a.m.

Acip, an employee of the restaurant, said the fire was in a power generator room of the building, also known as Gedung Modern building, near the Fuling restaurant kitchen.

"Several men from the building's maintenance unit were working in the generator room when flames sparked from the cables," he told The Jakarta Post.

"It was just a small fire and caused a tiny amount of damage in the generator room," Acip added.

He said the restaurant stopped its operations yesterday and that the police had sealed it for further investigation.

Acip's colleague, Fafa Fadli said: "When the smoke was spotted, we had not even turned on any of our stoves because none of the chefs had arrived."

But the chief of the Central Jakarta Fire Brigade, Robert Kasami, said that his men were still looking for the cause of the fire.

Last Friday, an object initially believed by police to be a sophisticated explosive device equipped with a timer was found in the basement of the 50-story Wisma BNI 46 tower, also located in the heart of the capital.

City police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman insisted the following day that the object was just as a metal box. (bsr)