Predawn fire in North Jakarta kills seven

Predawn fire in North Jakarta kills seven

JAKARTA (JP): Seven people, including three women, died in a
predawn fire in the densely-populated Pejagalan subdistrict in
Penjaringan, North Jakarta.

All of the victims, aged between 17 and 52, were burned beyond
recognition.

It appeared that most of the victims were sleeping soundly
when the fire took place at around 3:30 a.m.

Some of the bodies have been taken to the Cipto Mangunkusumo
General Hospital for postmortems.

"We had difficulty in identifying the victims because they
were burned beyond recognition and some parts of the bodies were
mangled," Eddy Praktinyo, a worker at the hospital's morgue told
The Jakarta Post.

Based on preliminary investigations, North Jakarta Police
Chief Lt. Col. Abubakar Nataprawira said the three women burned
in the fire were identified as Wasmi, 52, Wasita, 20, Saunah, 19.

The other four deceased were identified as Darsum, 30, Hasan,
25, Abdul Kadir, 17, and Naryo, 15, said the chief.

Local police said the fire was believed to have been caused by
an electrical short circuit in one of the many rented rooms on
the top floor of a two-story house on Jl. Raya Teluk Gong.

"We have questioned at least six witnesses, including
Syahruddin, 54, the owner of the house," said Abubakar.

All of the victims, except Abdul Kadir, who was Syahruddin's
son, were occupants of the top floor.

"It seems to us that the occupants realized there was a fire
only after they were trapped in it," said Abubakar.

Some of them were found near the doors and bathroom while
others were on the remains of beds, the local police chief said.

Syahruddin told police investigators that he was only able to
rescue his wife and another son when the blaze broke out.

Abdul Kadir died on the first floor which was used by the
family for living quarters and a small shop.

"The fire spread so fast," said Syahruddin as quoted by
Abubakar.

Six fire fighting units from the nearby fire brigade put out
the fire after more than two hours.

Besides Syahruddin's property, the fire also razed at least
three nearby buildings, including a school owned by a privately-
run foundation, Yayasan Harapan Zaman, a small barbershop and a
motorcycle repair shop.

The total material loss has yet to be determined.

"We're still calculating the amount of losses and carrying out
our investigation to find out the real cause of the fire," said
Abubakar.

Meanwhile, the central market of Cikampek, a town located 70km
east of the capital, went up in flames in the early hours of
yesterday, burning down all 256 permanent kiosks.

As of yesterday noon, fire fighters were still struggling to
bring the blaze under control, Antara reported. Other parts of
the site were still smoldering

Of the 256 kiosks burned down, 156 sold nine prime
commodities, while the remaining 100 were vacant.

"The fire started at around 2:30 a.m.," Ahmad Rifai, the
village chief of East Cikampek, said while he was busily
mobilizing his subordinates to help the fire fighters extinguish
the blaze.

Traders related that the fire started on the roof of kiosk
No.172 owned by Tasim and rapidly spread through the whole
market.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated. But it was
strongly believed that it was caused by an electrical short
circuit that occurred in Tasim's kiosk. (bsr/04/bas)