Warehouse engulfed by flames

Warehouse engulfed by flames

JAKARTA (JP): A major fire engulfed a two-story warehouse of a
cosmetic and medical equipment distributor at the Pulogadung
industrial complex in East Jakarta on Saturday afternoon.

No fatalities were reported, but the warehouse owner, PT Mensa
Bina Sukses, suffered an estimated hundreds of millions of rupiah
in material losses.

An eyewitness said he heard an explosion somewhere in the
warehouse, but he was not sure whether the explosion came first
or the fire.

"I'm not sure which happened first, the explosion or the
fire," one of the company's salespeople, Rizal, said.

The cause of the fire, believed to have started at 1:15 p.m.
in one of the rooms of the building, is still under police
investigation.

The fire also burned a sedan belonging to Mensa Bina Sukses
inside the warehouse.

The eyewitness said he saw none of the warehouse's 240
employees at the time, but there were some people, believed to be
the firm's salespeople, who later helped evacuate some
merchandise and office equipment.

"We at least were able to save some equipment and boxes of
cosmetics," he said.

The East Jakarta Fire Department, which received information
10 minutes after the fire started, dispatched 11 fire engines to
the scene with about 65 crew.

Although the scene and water sources were easy to reach, it
took the fire fighters three hours to put out the blaze due to
the huge number of flammable items inside the store and the
strong wind. (04/bay)