Two houses in Pondok Labu catch fire, suspected electrical fault

Two residential houses on Jalan Ambalun, RT 03/RW 06, Pondok Labu Urban Village, Cilandak District, South Jakarta, caught fire on Wednesday, suspected to have been caused by an electrical fault or phenomenon.

“The objects that burned were two houses. The provisional suspected cause is an electrical phenomenon,” said Head of the South Jakarta Fire and Rescue Sub-Department, Asril Rizal, to reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Asril said officers received the fire report at 08.03 Western Indonesia Time.

A total of 20 fire engines with 83 personnel were deployed to handle the blaze.

Officers arrived at the scene at 08.15 WIB and began extinguishing the fire two minutes later.

The fire was successfully contained at 09.03 WIB, followed by a cooling process starting at 09.12 WIB.

“The extinguishing operation was completed at 10.53 WIB. The situation has been declared finished,” he said.

The chronology began with witness Anan, who was at the Navy Health Centre. He saw flames coming from a house across from the location and then warned the homeowner to leave immediately.

The homeowner then left for the Navy Health Centre while shouting for help.

The fire information was subsequently relayed by Eko, the RW 06 LMK, to Suparno, the Pondok Labu Fire Task Force, before being forwarded to Command Centre 41.

The first house that caught fire was known to have an area of approximately 20x25 metres. The fire then spread to a second house with an area of approximately 3x20 metres.

A total of two families comprising seven people were affected by the incident. No injuries or fatalities were reported.

The value of losses caused by the fire is still under investigation. There were no fatalities or injuries in the incident.