Worker killed in fire

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)