9 Houses In South Singkawang Ludes Burned, Victims Forced To Extect To Nearest Relatives

Firefighters after extinguishing the fire in nine houses that caught fire on Bhinneka Bakti Street, Sedau Village, South Singkawang District (ANTARA PHOTO/Ho-Rudi)

SINGKAWANG - A total of nine houses with addresses at Bhinneka Bakti Street, Sedau Village, South Singkawang District, Singkawang City, West Kalimantan Province, were burned to the ground at around 06.45 WIB this morning. "As a result of the fire, the nine houses were badly damaged. So that the victims had to find temporary shelter," said South Singkawang Police Chief, AKP Inayatun Nurhasanah in Singkawang, Antara, Thursday, November 24 afternoon. He said, based on the interim crime scene processing, it was suspected that the fire came from the third house in Eta, which is the business of PetsHOP as well as a farmer for Persian and Angora cats. "The source of the fire came from the second floor of Eta's house, where on the second floor there were 10 Colombian and Angora cats stored in the cage," he said. At the time of the incident, Eta and her child were not at home. "This means that the night before the incident, sister Eta and her child slept at their parents' house at the AI Roundabout," he said. However, when Eta was about to take her child to school, she had time to go home with the intention of changing clothes. When he got home, he saw the flames coming out of the second floor of his house. "Looking at the flames, sister Eta tried to immediately save the cats on the second floor. Even sister Eta did not have time to save her other belongings," he said. Then, he went down and asked local residents for help. Meanwhile, residents who live close to Eta's house are also trying to save flammable items. The reason is, in the row of houses that caught fire, there were residents who opened food and gas/LPG stalls. From this incident, the police chief confirmed that there were no casualties. However, only one person was injured, namely Eta because she was trying to save her cats on the second floor. "Only minor injuries may have been hit by broken glass when saving the cats," he explained. As for material losses, currently, calculations are still being carried out. Meanwhile, the cause of the fire is suspected to have come from an electrical short. However, to be sure, the police are still carrying out the crime scene by examining several witnesses who live in the vicinity of the fire incident.