Terror Burning Empty Houses In Palangka Raya Occurs Again, Police Are Still Investigating

JAKARTA - The Head of the Jekan Raya Sub-Sector Police, Palangka Raya Police, Central Kalimantan, Iptu Siswanto said that he was still investigating the fire incident in an empty house that occurred in Palangka Raya City.

According to Siswanto, empty house fires occur twice a day.

First, at around 01.30 WIB, it occurred on Petuk Katimpun Street, Petuk Katimpun Village, Jekan Raya District, Palangka Raya City, one house unit almost caught fire, fortunately the residents managed to extinguish the fire.

Then at around 04.00 WIB, another fire broke out on Rajawali IX Street, Evidence Tunggal Village, Jekan Raya District, Palangka Raya City, and scorched an empty house.

"At the location of the fire at Jalan Petuk Katimun, it was an attempted arson from the front of the empty house terrace under the construction of wood. Indications of the tires, maybe assisted by gasoline or kerosene. There were traces of burnt tire remains, namely tire wire. That is clearly an indication of terror," said Siswanto as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, October 30.

He explained that the fire in the empty house was successfully extinguished by residents so that the fire did not burn down the empty house and only made a pole of the house.

The Palangka Raya Police Inafis Team conducted a crime scene investigation and secured a number of evidences for the investigation process.

Not long after, at around 04.00 WIB, another fire broke out on Jalan Rajawali IX, the incident scorched an empty house that was known to belong to a journalist, Limson Dedy.

"From the information of the residents who saw it, the source of the fire was known to come from the front to the left of the empty house, then the fire quickly scorched the house," he said.

From the location of the incident on Jalan Rajawali IX, Siswanto continued, his party managed to find evidence in the form of used car tires which were split into two parts and were already on fire.

From the evidence found, the police suspect that the perpetrator of the arson was the same person who deliberately set fire to an empty house on Jalan Petuk Katimpun.

"If we analyze, maybe the perpetrator started the action at Petuk Katim first, then he went down to the location in Rajawali IX, because in Katim it didn't work," said Siswanto.