Witness recounts the moments residents rescued a burn victim during a boarding-house fire in Bogor

Bogor — A fire at a boarding-house in Tegallega, Bogor Tengah district, Bogor City, was witnessed by M. Ilyas, who described the moments residents tried to help a burning victim as the incident unfolded on Thursday evening, 5 March 2026.

Ilyas said he first learned of the fire as he was about to perform Tarawih prayers. He heard an explosion coming from the rented-room dwelling at the scene.

Realising there was a fire, Ilyas and nearby residents immediately approached the source of the noise and saw the flames had grown.

After the door was forced open, they saw a woman whose body was on fire trying to exit the building.

“I felt sorry; it was tragic. It was already blazing, so people poured water on it,” Ilyas told reporters in Bogor Tengah on Thursday night.

Ilyas said he did not know that a baby, identified as Z, was inside the boarding house. At that moment he and the others were focused on extinguishing the fire so it would not spread to other buildings nearby.

“Nobody knew about the baby,” he added.

He only learned of the baby’s existence after being told by the local RT head.

According to Ilyas, the baby was thought to be in the deepest room during the fire. Meanwhile, the stove suspected to be the fire’s source was in the front part of the building.

“In the deepest room, perhaps she was cooking in the front room, so the stove is there, because the baby was in a room,” he said.

Bogor Tengah Police Chief Kompol Waluyo said the authorities received the fire report ahead of Tarawih prayers.

He said there were three victims in the incident from one family.

“Then the victims are three; one is a 1-year-old named Z, and the other two were injured; they are all currently at PMI Hospital,” Waluyo told reporters in Bogor Tengah on Thursday night.

Based on on-site identification at the scene, police suspect the fire began from a cooking stove.

The fire is believed to have spread after the resident dozed off while cooking, leaving the stove on.