T

he City administration has yet to decide whether to demolish the Senen Market building, which caught fire last week, and build a completely new building, despite findings that the market, which is one of the oldest in the capital, had poor infrastructure.

The fire, which gutted over a thousand kiosks in the market’s Blocks I and II, left the building severely damaged.

Acting governor Sumarsono said on Monday that upon preliminary inspection the building, which was renovated 29 years ago, had not fulfilled the minimal standards for a public market.

He said the building had adhered to different standards, which fall short of today’s more advanced criteria.

However, when asked whether the findings would lead to the tearing down of the entire building, the acting governor maintained that the final decision was pending evaluation results.

“Of course we do not know [yet]. We must first thoroughly check the building’s structure, if the building structure turns out to be good then we keep going, if bad then we will have to take it apart,” Sumarsono said at the City Hall.

As an old building, he continued, the building failed to meet minimum safety requirements, such as on hydrants, fire extinguishers and water sprinklers.

“Upon a glance at the debris of the building, I also didn’t see any [fire extinguisher] canisters among the remains, which could mean that the kiosks were not adequately equipped with them,” Sumarsono said.

The incident on Thursday was not the first time the market, which is managed by city-owned company PT Pembangunan Jaya, had caught fire. On April 25, 2014, another fire destroyed almost 3,000 kiosks, causing major losses to thousands of vendors.

The latest fire has pushed the administration to draw up clearer measures on safety standards for markets all across Jakarta. Moreover, the administration is also set to evaluate all markets in the capital beginning next week.

Sumarsono said that in future the procedures for obtaining building permits must also be accompanied by intensive education on safety standards for vendors, as well as implementing stricter security functions at the place of business.

The acting governor also noted that multiple extra electricity cables could have played a part in the short circuit that is believed to have led to the fire.

“Just look at what’s in Senen right now, one cable, with its limited capacity, could be connected to 17 outlets with mobile phone chargers, irons, radios, TVs and that’s very dangerous,” he said.

The fire that burned down Blocks I and II of the market has left vendors with no alternative but to set up stalls on the street, while market operators scrape together plans to build a temporary location, which could take up to several months.

Sumarsono said the city administration had not decided to evict them yet, while the market is still registering the list of vendors to be relocated to the planned temporary location.

Pembangunan Jaya is set to receive an insurance payout worth Rp 116.9 billion (US$ 8.7 billion) for the building

House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon, meanwhile, said he hoped the market would not be rebuilt into a modern shopping mall.

“We will utilize our role as legislators to accommodate your aspirations,” Fadli said when visiting the vendors, as quoted by tempo.co.