Tanah Abang still smoldering, firemen accused of arson

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It has been 36 hours and fire fighters were still working hard late on Thursday night to put out a fire which continued to smolder at Southeast Asia's largest textile mart in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

With the electricity to the area switched off, owners of unburned shops outside the four-story building speculated that the market would be closed for at least one month, so they decided to empty their kiosks to prevent looting.

Three of the 40 fire engines were seen on the site working to pump water from the gutters, while others collected water from hydrants and the river within a radius of one kilometer.

"There is one water reservoir right in the middle of the market, but we cannot reach it. Besides, there is not enough water to put out a fire this big," head of the Jakarta Fire Department Johnny Pangaribuan told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Fully aware that nothing else could be done to save what was left, hundreds of shop owners and employees just watched the thick smoke billow. They grumbled about how ineffective the firefighters were.

Muklis, 45, one of the owners, had been in business at Tanah Abang since the early 1980s selling garments on the sidewalk until he saved enough to buy two small kiosks -- each worth Rp 250 million -- on the building's second floor in Block A.

"Why are the firefighters just relaxing? They are lazy and not seriously trying to put out the fire which has now started to burn the upper floors. Seeing how they do their work, I suspect they are in collusion with an arsonist," Muklis, accompanied by wife Sumiati, told the Post.

Pangaribuan seemed to disagree with such accusations, saying that he himself had warned the president of the city's market operator PD Pasar Jaya Syahril Tanjung last November that six of its markets had poor security and facilities.

"Of all the buildings in Jakarta, I feared a fire in Tanah Abang market the most, because it's always full of people and goods, but the place was not in good order and the fire extinguishing equipment was not well maintained.

"I formally asked the management to let us inspect the market in January, but they asked us to wait. Now, we discover that only one of the six hydrants was working and they only had a few small fire extinguishers for a building so dense," he told the Post.

Another kiosk owner Rizal, whose lots also were burned, demanded certainty from both the government and the market management that they could reopen business and get compensation for their losses, which could amount to trillions of rupiah. It is estimated that more than 6,900 owners have lost their kiosks.

In a related development, City Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Prasetyo revealed that police investigators had questioned three witnesses to discover the cause of the fire.

Those three are the head of the market management, Yudi, and two of the market security guards Debleng Sutrisno, 35, and Awaludin, 30.

"But thus far, we have not named any suspects responsible for the blaze," Prasetyo said.

He said police had not even reached a final conclusion over what could have caused the fire.

"Personnel of the Central Jakarta Police precinct supported by personnel from Puslabfor (police forensics laboratory center) are still investigating on the scene to determine the cause of the fire," he added.

The police had also detained seven people who were caught looting in the kiosks left by the owners during the fire on Wednesday.

The detainees are Ronny Pasaribu, 31, Hamdani, 20, M. Nasrul, 28, Feriyanto, 22, Rustam Effendy, 28, Soleh Mabrur, 21, and Zulfikar, 32, all residents of Tanah Abang district.