Fire engulfed 40 semi-permanent buildings in a densely populated settlement on Jalan Makmur, Duku Village, RT 06 and 07/RW 02, Kramat Pela Urban Village, Kebayoran Lama Sub-District, South Jakarta, Thursday (6/26).

The fire broke out around 1.30 PM. It started from a scavenger’s stall on Jalan Pandan RT 08/02 Kramat Pela that burned, but then the fire spread to here

“ The fire broke out around 1.30 PM. It started from a scavenger’s stall on Jalan Pandan RT 08/02 Kramat Pela that burned, but then the fire spread to here ,” told Anwar, a local.

Head of South Jakarta Fire and Disaster Handling Sub-Department Disaster Mitigation Section, Ipung Manik, stated that 23 fire trucks are deployed to the location. He also admitted that firemen had difficulties to reach the fire core and extinguish it due to narrow road access.

“To reach the fire location, we had to get into Gandaria City’s parking lot to be able to pull the water hose. While to extinguish the fire that burned the semi-permanent buildings, we had to climb on house roofs because the location is very dense. Moreover, there are many flammable materials like asbestos and wood,” he explained.

The firemen are until now still cooling down the fire location. On the other side, fire victims are clustered around the scene while grieving for their burned homes, and some women even crying hysterically because they failed to evacuate their belongings.

“The information on the loss and casualty is still unknown, because we’re still cooling down the scene,” said Manik.