Police compound blazes, no injury
Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Menteng Police compound in Central Jakarta caught fire on Saturday afternoon, razing several rooms and buildings.
Four houses inside the police compound, an administration office, an office for the intelligence unit and the ammunition warehouse were set on fire. Police and fire fighters reportedly managed to salvage several rifles kept inside the warehouse.
An official at Central Jakarta Fire Agency Zainal Abidin said there were no fatalities in the blaze, which was reported at around 6:20 p.m.
Eleven fire engines were deployed to the scene to extinguish the fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
On Friday evening fire broke out in two separate places in the city, destroying part of a government building in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, and about 25 houses in Taman Sari, West Jakarta.
The city's Language and Koranic Sciences Institute (LBIA) building on Jl. Awaluddin II, Tanah Abang district in Central Jakarta, which was still under construction, was the second government building gutted by fire this month. Early in December, fire also destroyed part of the Ministry of Industry and Trade building in South Jakarta.
Head of Central Jakarta Fire Agency Idrus speculated the fire on Friday was caused by faulty electrical installation. There were no fatalities in the incidents, which took place at around 9:30 p.m., and ended one hour later. It was too soon to asses material losses.
Fourteen fire engines were deployed to extinguish the blaze, which gutted most of the building's roof.
In a separate incident, residents of Tamansari, whose houses were burned late on Friday evening, sheltered at makeshift tents erected at nearby mosques.
Donations of used clothes and food were seen flooding the tents from churches and nearby residents.
An official said an electrical short circuit might start the fire. Some residents said the burning of garbage was to blame.
"It all happened so quickly, I am not sure what caused the fire. We were all sitting close by when suddenly people shouted 'fire' and asked for help," Fauzan, a resident, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.