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ozens of residents of South Jakarta'€™s densely-populated Bukit Duri are struggling to stitch their lives back together after a large fire destroyed their homes early on Thursday.

Neighborhood unit head 45-year-old Jamal Jamin, whose house was also burned down by the fire, said that the victims of the fire would temporarily stay in makeshift tents put up just across the street from their homes.

'€œFor the time being, we will cooperate with one another to continue with our lives,'€ Jamal told The Jakarta Post in his tent on Friday.

The fire destroyed 71 houses and has displaced at least 150 families, according to the South Jakarta Fire and Disaster Management sub-agency. As many as 24 fire trucks from the subagency, as well as six others from neighboring municipalities, were mobilized to extinguish the fire.

Even though the fire almost completely destroyed their belongings, Jamal and his neighbors still attempted to collect what remained in the wreckage of their homes. They will sell the scrap metal to scavengers for a pittance in return.

'€œThe fire started from a house situated just behind mine. It spread quickly because most of our houses are made of wood and there are many frame shops in this neighborhood. We had no time to save our belongings,'€ Jamal said.

Jamal, a single father of five, has sent two of his youngest children, aged seven and ten, to a relative'€™s house in Cijantung, East Jakarta, so that they can stay safe and sleep well while Jamal rebuilds their house.

'€œI have sent my youngest children to my relative'€™s house. I don'€™t want them to get sick sleeping in a tent outdoors,'€ he said.

Separately, Jamal'€™s neighbor, 53-year-old Saidah, said that she would soon begin to reconstruct her house.

'€œI understand that we will be evicted in 2016. We will construct modest homes out of logs and iron sheets so we can at least have a roof over our heads,'€ Saidah said.

The residents in Bukit Duri constitute part of a group of people occupying riverbanks who are set to be evicted and relocated as part of the city administration'€™s Ciliwung river normalization program.

As the effects of perennial flooding worsen in Jakarta, the city administration is preparing an ambitious plan to dredge and widen the banks of the Ciliwung, the longest river running through the capital and one that regularly overflows.

The project necessitates the eviction of residents and the destruction of their dwellings along the riverbanks, such as has already been experienced by residents in Kampung Pulo, Jatinegera, East Jakarta. More than 1,000 families in Kampung Pulo were evicted earlier this year, and only around half of them were relocated to a nearby low-cost apartment complex.

After the normalization project in Kampung Pulo is finished, the project will be moved Bukit Duri in Tebet, South Jakarta.

'€œWe hope that the city administration assists us in building a temporary home while we wait for the eviction next year,'€ Saidah said.

Separately, Edi Sucipto, the operational unit chief at the South Jakarta Fire and Disaster Management subagency, said that the subagency assumed that the fire was caused by a short-circuit in electrical wiring. He said that the fire spread quickly because of poor electricity installation.

'€œFurthermore, most of the houses were made of wood and many residents also owned frame shops. Thus, the fire spread quickly,'€ Edi said over the phone.

Tebet Police chief Comr. Nurdin A Rahman said that his unit was currently investigating the cause of the fire and refused to reveal any further details.

'€œFortunately, there were no fatalities. We are currently investigating the cause of the fire,'€ Nurdin said.