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Fire Kebayoran Lama market reopened
The day fire struck the top two floors of Kebayoran Lama market in South Jakarta, city market operator PD Pasar Jaya said they would allow tenants on the market’s ground and first floors to reopen their stores today
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he day fire struck the top two floors of Kebayoran Lama market in South Jakarta, city market operator PD Pasar Jaya said they would allow tenants on the market’s ground and first floors to reopen their stores today.
“We will reopen the market [Sunday] morning,” Pasar Jaya manager for South Jakarta area Ruyani told The Jakarta Post Saturday.
On Friday morning, a massive blaze struck the market, which is occupied by more than 1,000 kiosks, razing the entire third floor and half of the second floor, where the Ramayana department store was located.
Firefighters, however, found battling the fire difficult as there was only one working hydrant in the 10,000-square-meter building. They also had difficulty reaching areas inside the building, which was clad in aluminum plate.
The fire was finally extinguished nine hours later after the city fire department deployed 48 fire engines and 200 firefighters.
No casualties were reported but officials said losses from fire could reach as much as Rp 7 billion (US$770,000).
On Saturday morning, a team from the National Police Forensics Laboratory visited the scene to start investigating the possible causes of the fire.
Two fire engines were also deployed to spray water to “cool down” parts of the building that might reignite.
Meanwhile, business owners flocked to the market to inspect any losses of stock.
One woman, who declined to be named, said she came to the market to check if her cosmetics stock, which she kept in her kiosk at the ground floor, was damaged by water spilling down from the market’s burnt upper floors.
“Thank God they’re all fine,” the woman said after she and her husband opened their kiosks.
Another middle-aged woman, who owns a meatball stall in the market’s second floor, said she came to the market together with her family to “rescue” dozens of kilograms of frozen meatballs from her kiosk.
“Since the market operator has cut the electricity, I must move my meatball stock back to my freezer at home otherwise the meatballs will go off,” said the woman, who has operated her business in the market for more than 20 years.
