Police compound blazes, no injury
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.