Firefighters Had Trouble With Water Supply When Putting Out Fire At Gembrong Market, East Jakarta

JAKARTA - The fire that hit the Pasar Gembrong area, RT 04/01, Cipinang Besar Utara Village, Jatinegara District, East Jakarta, scorched dozens of houses on Sunday, April 24, evening.

Head of RT 06/01, Mugiharto said the fire spread quickly to residential areas in the area.

"About 90 houses (burned) from three RTs. The three RTs are RT 04, 05 and 06," he told reporters at the location, Sunday, April 24, evening.

The process of extinguishing the fire is a bit hampered because of the difficulty of water supply. Meanwhile, local residents helped the process of extinguishing the fire with manual equipment such as buckets filled with water taken by relay at other residents' homes.

"So far, there is not enough water. The handling of the blambir (fire engine) is a bit slow. Maybe it's because of traffic jams," he said.

Mugiharto suspected that the fire was caused by a short circuit.

"Electric short circuit from the 2nd floor (residents' houses) in the middle," he said.

Previously, it was reported that East Jakarta Gulkarmat Sub-dept. officers and local residents were still working to extinguish the fire that was still blazing in the Pasar Gembrong area, RT 04/01, Cipinang Besar Utara Village, Jatinegara District, East Jakarta, Sunday 24 April, evening.

A total of 25 fire engines with 105 Gulkarmat officers are still trying to extinguish the red-hot fire.

Although the process of extinguishing the fire has been carried out since 21.15 p.m., until 23.30 p.m., the fire is still growing.

According to Ilah's statement, a woman who lives near the location of the fire, it is suspected that the fire was caused by a gas stove from one of the residents' houses.

"Initially, it was gas, the location (of the fire) was very close to where my parents lived. At first, the gas exploded. The incident was over," said the woman at the location.