TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Fire razes hundreds of kiosks at Senen market
Nothing left: A vendor rescue his merchandise from the ruins of his stall at the Senen Market in Central Jakarta on Thursday
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
N
span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">Nothing left: A vendor rescue his merchandise from the ruins of his stall at the Senen Market in Central Jakarta on Thursday. Some 300 kiosks and stalls were destroyed when a huge fire broke out earlier in the day. JP/J. Adiguna
More than 300 kiosks and stalls were razed by a huge fire early Thursday morning at Blok VI of the Senen Inpres market in Central Jakarta.
No injuries were reported as vendors had not yet started the days business, financial losses, however, are predicted to reach as high as Rp 3.5 billion (US$381,056).
City-owned traditional market operator PD Pasar Jaya president director Djangga Lubis said on Thursday that about 250 kiosks and 80 stalls belonging to sidewalk vendors were destroyed during the blaze.
There are currently a total of 2,300 kiosks in the market, Djangga added.
“The vendors are still cleaning up their areas after the fire. They will not be open for business for the next few days,” he said, adding that he did not yet know when they would start re-operating.
Djangga said that most of the stalls damaged in the fire were those belonging to clothes sellers.
The fire broke out at 00:30 a.m. and could only be put out one and a half hours later after the deployment of 29 fire trucks.
The incident forced police to redirect traffic and close Senen terminal.
Traffic from Jl. Gunung Sahari to Senen was rerouted, while Senen bus terminal was closed for a temporary area for vendors to store their merchandise.
As of 7 p.m., traffic in the area was heavy, but moving.
“The Senen terminal was reopened as the route had returned to normal by 6:30 p.m.,” said Second Brig. Densus from the Jakarta Police Traffic Management Centre (TMC).
Djangga said that his office was predicting the fire had caused at least Rp 3.5 billion in losses.
“After cleaning up the market, we will review the building’s structural integrity.
“If it is not strong enough then we will have to remove the vendors to a temporary site,” he said.
He added that his office had prepared Kenari market of Salemba, Central Jakarta, as a temporary place for the vendors to start selling.
“But the vendors are not happy about moving to Kenari market,” he said, adding that they were all focusing on cleaning up the ruins of their kiosks at the moment.
He denied speculations that the blaze was an act of arson.
“We’ll let the police investigate the matter,” he said.
Central Jakarta Police chief detective Comr. Suwondo Nainggolan said separately that investigators were still looking into the probable cause of the blast.
“So far, we have questioned four vendors as witnesses in the case. We have not yet declared any suspects,” Suwondo said.
He said that his office had coordinated with the police forensic laboratory to find out the cause of the incident.
As of Thursday afternoon, he added, police was still finding it difficult to access the site.
The market was built about 30 years ago under the governorship of Ali Sadikin.
Along with the market construction, the late governor set up the neighboring terminal.
In the 1990s, modern shopping centers like Atrium Senen and sidewalk vendors have made the area a major trade site in the capital.
In 2004, the Pasar Jaya actually planned to renovate the market but some vendors turned down the idea.
Senen is also known as one of the busiest areas in the city thanks to the terminal and Senen train station, through which thousands of commuters pass each day.
