Worker killed in fire

JAKARTA (JP): A fire on the fifth floor of the Pasaraya shopping center in Blok M, South Jakarta, killed a worker and seriously injured his younger brother yesterday.

A South Jakarta fire brigade official, Tugimin, said Maman, 29, and his brother Oleh, 19, were inside an air conditioning duct fixing the foam rubber layer when a fire suddenly started and burnt the duct.

"Oleh managed to jump out of the duct quickly but Maman was trapped inside the duct" and was killed, Tugimin said.

He said the brothers, residents of Ciampea district in Bogor, West Java, worked for a company specializing in renovating buildings.

The fire began about 10:40 a.m. and was not very big. It was put out in less than twenty minutes.

"The fire didn't burn the room. It only razed the one-meter-by-60-centimeter duct, which was about 50 meters long," Tugimin said.

Police are investigating the cause of the fire.

Tugimin said it took about an hour to find Maman's body because of the heavy smoke inside the duct.

Maman's body was finally found in the duct with his shirt covering his head.

"It seems the victim had been suffering from suffocation," he said.

Maman's body and Oleh were taken to the nearby Pertamina hospital but Maman's body had to be taken to the Ciptomangunkusumo General Hospital because Pertamina refuses to accept dead bodies, Tugimin said.

Pasaraya's management has not said how much damage the fire caused in financial terms.

The management also earlier denied anyone had been killed in the fire.

An emotional senior shopping center employee smashed a camera of a private television crew so the cameraman could not film the place where Maman's body was found. (04/cst)