At least three laboratories, a library and other rooms were razed to the ground early Sunday in Makassar when a huge fire gutted a building at the Hasanuddin University campus in Tamalanrea.
Witnesses said the fire began at 5:30 a.m. local time, when smoke was spotted from an exhaust fan on the fifth floor of the university's School of Pharmacy building, which also housed the math study program of the university's School of Math and Natural Sciences.
"My friends and I tried to get into the building, but the iron sliding door at the entrance was locked," said Amin, a student at the university's School of Engineering.
"So we went and reported it to the campus security unit."
Amin and five others had been spending the night on campus, across from the pharmacy building, for a research task.
He said the fire quickly spread over the entire fifth and then sixth floors in just minutes, with flames lapping out of the windows on both floors and the roof of the building.
The fire brigade that arrived on the scene an hour after the fire broke out faced difficulties extinguishing it, because the fire was located high up. In addition, the school's three microbiology, pharmacy and phytochemistry pharmacognosy labs were located on the affected floors, and contained various flammable chemicals.
Small explosions were heard several times during the fire. All three labs were completely razed in the incident.
The fire was finally extinguished at 9 a.m., after the municipal disaster handling agency and the fire department deployed 43 fire trucks to the campus. Smoke, however, was still seen emanating from the gutted building at 11 a.m.
Rector Idrus Paturusi said the damage caused could likely reach more than Rp 10 billion.
"That doesn't include the expensive lab equipment and research material," he said.
Elly Wahyudin, dean of the School of Pharmacy, said that of greater concern was the loss of 20 research documents and material that lecturers and students of the school were working on.
"These were invaluable," Elly said.
Elly added one of the papers was on the isolation and identification of an anti-cancer chemical combination derived from sea sponge and paliasa. The research had been conducted over the course of two years and was nearing completion.
"I don't know what to say," said Rahmawati Syukur, one of the researchers.
"Our two-year study, just gone. It's really saddening."
The cause of the fire remains unknown, Idrus said.
"An electrical short circuit is believed to be the likely cause," he said.
"But we're still waiting for the police's forensic report."
