A fire razed seven-story Medan Plaza Center, the oldest shopping mall in the provincial capital of North Sumatra on Saturday, destroying dozens of shops, entertainment spots, including a cinema complex, and an Indonesian Bethel (GBI) church.

Medan Baru Police chief Comr. Ronni Nicolas Sidabutar said the fire might have been caused by an electrical short circuit in one of the shops. '€œBut we are still waiting for the results from the police forensics laboratory. We will also question witnesses to determine the cause of the fire,'€ Ronni said.

Witnesses said that the fire started in the mall, which was built in 1980, at 2 a.m. local time, just an hour after the mall'€™s security had conducted a routine check.

'€œWe patrolled inside the building at 1 a.m. After determining that nothing was amiss, we returned to our office,'€ the mall'€™s security chief Yus Aprizal said.

But Aprizal said security officers then noticed smoke emerging from the first floor of the mall, which previously suffered fire damage in 1994 and last year, and tried to extinguish the fire.

'€œThe fire spread fast to other floors so we contacted the Medan Fire Department,'€ he said, estimating that the fire caused billions of rupiah in losses as a result of the damage to almost all parts of the mall.

Medan Fire Department spokesperson Putra Ramadhan said fire fighters had difficulty in bringing the blaze under control as it had already spread from the first to the seventh floor.

Putra said fire fighters reported no casualties in the fire, which was not fully extinguished as of Saturday evening.

Members of the GBI congregation will be unable to take part in Sunday services as the church, which occupied almost half of the sixth floor, was gutted.

Nikson Panjaitan, a GBI congregant, expressed his sadness, saying that the house of worship had not been damaged in the previous two fires.

'€œIt'€™s the first incident, it'€™s so sad that we cannot hold services in the church,'€ Nikson told The Jakarta Post.

Another member of the congregation, Putri, expressed shock upon hearing about the fire, as she had taken part in worship at the church as recently as Thursday.

'€œI was there on Thursday. We held a special service for women every Thursday,'€ she added.

On Sunday, the church usually held three services; in the morning, afternoon and evening. It is believed the total congregation numbers more than 1,000 members.

GBI pastor Jansen Lase said the congregation was currently awaiting confirmation of the new location for Sunday services.

'€œWe will relocate to other churches temporarily. But we are still waiting for confirmation on which churches [will hold the services],'€ Jansen said.

He said there were several options for alternative churches, including GBI Medan Fair, GBI JW Marriot Hotel, Selecta Medan and Pelita Nusantara.

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