6 People Died When Trapped When A Boarding House Shop In Tambora Caught Fire, This Is What West Jakarta Walkot Said

A shop house that was used as a boarding house in the South Duri area, Tambora, West Jakarta, caught fire, Wednesday (17/8/2022). ANTARA/HO-West Jakarta City Government

JAKARTA - The West Jakarta City Government appealed to residents in the area not to install iron bars on every building window to facilitate evacuation in the event of a fire.

"We urge the houses, especially those on the second, third and fourth floors, to not have bars installed," said West Jakarta Mayor Yani Wahyu Purwoko when inspecting the location of the burning boarding house in the South Duri area, Tambora District, West Jakarta, as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, August 17th.

Six people were declared dead because they were trapped on the second floor of the boarding house.

Yani suspected that the evacuation process for the six victims would be difficult because the windows on the second and third floors of the building were installed with trellises.

"What is clear is that there is no permit to add bars. It is indeed the intention of the residents to secure from things that are not wanted, but it is still not allowed," he said.

Yani confirmed that he would direct elements at the RT, RW and sub-district levels to promote the prohibition of installing iron bars.

Head of the Tambora Sector of the Jakarta, West Jakarta Fire and Rescue Management (Gulkarmat) Sub-dept., Joko Susilo explained, the chronology of the fire.

It started when the community reported the fire incident at 06.36 WIB. "We received a report at 6:36 a.m. that a shophouse that was used as a boarding house caught fire," said Joko.

Based on the report, his party then went to the location with a force of five pump cars and 25 personnel.

Arriving at the location, it was seen that the second floor of the shop was burned. The officers immediately extinguished it.

Because the fire could not be controlled, the officers finally added personnel to the total number of units that were deployed as many as 20 pump cars and 100 officers.

The victims who died or suffered burns were thought to be trapped in the burning boarding house. The fire was extinguished until around 07.30 WIB.

Joko suspected that the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit (short circuit) from the second floor of the shophouse. "Allegedly due to a short circuit in one of the rooms on the second floor," he said.