Fire Guts More than Hundred Houses at Military Facility
15 September 2014 11:30 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A fire ravaged 141 houses at a military housing complex in Kramatjati, East Jakarta, at around 3 p.m. on Saturday, as reported by Antara News.
The blaze is thought to have been caused by an electrical short circuit at one of the houses, and then spread due to strong winds.
Around 650 families are estimated to have lost their homes in the fire. Eyewitness Indra said that many of the homes dated back to the 1950s.
“We haven’t calculated the losses, but more than 1,000 people have been displaced,” said East Jakarta Fire and Natural Disaster Agency head Abdul Karim, adding that there were no casualties.
According to Karim, the agency deployed 25 fire trucks to extinguish the fire, but many had difficulty accessing the area. The agency was eventually able to extinguish the fire after two hours.
ANTARA