Sawah Besar fire victims ask for help

JAKARTA (JP): Residents of Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta, who lost more than 100 houses in a fire Wednesday, asked the government to let them rebuild their homes.

A plywood sign installed in front of a house yesterday said: "We ask to be permitted to rebuild our houses. Residents of Karang Anyar subdistrict."

According to the subdistrict office at least 330 families, or 2,000 people, lost their homes on the 1.5 hectare site.

A resident, Jajang, said that residents hoped the city would quickly decide on the matter.

"We don't have any other place to stay except our gutted homes," he said.

Most residents lost all belongings because they were at their workplaces when the fire started at about 9 a.m, Jajang said.

He called on fellow Jakartans to donate food, clothes and money to the fire victims.

Central Jakarta Mayor Abdul Kahfi told residents not to rebuild houses since the mayoralty was still collecting data about land ownership in the area.

Kahfi said most of land on the site belonged to the state.

He said preliminary findings revealed there were ownership certificates for only 15 percent of the land.

But Kahfi acknowledged the area was a residential zone according to city planning.

Dozens of residents stayed at the subdistrict office yesterday while other residents slept in their gutted houses.

The roofs were covered with plastic while windows were covered with sarongs or curtains.

Residents were sitting and sleeping on mats in their houses, which they tried to clean up.

A communal kitchen, which was installed in a garage of a house, prepared rice and instant noodles for fire victims.

Some scavengers were seen collecting steel items from the burned houses.

Residents said a man who was believed to have caused the fire, identified as Asep, was drunk the night before the fire occurred.

Asep accidentally threw a lit cigarette into his kerosene stove, neighbors said.

Meanwhile, a police source said Asep, a public order officer at nearby Kartini subdistrict, accidentally dropped his lit cigarette when he was asleep, which then burned his mattress.

The officer said Asep, who admitted drinking a little liquor the night before the fire, was still being interrogated. (jun)