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Semarang market fire causes Rp 4.9b in damage
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Burned down – Several vendors search for merchandise in a burned-down kiosk. Eight kiosks at the Ya’ik Baru market in Semarang, Central Java caught fire on Saturday evening, causing vendors to suffer financial losses worth hundreds of millions of rupiah. (thejakartapost.com/Suherdjoko)
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emarang Mayor Hendrar Prihadi has said his administration will immediately renovate kiosks that were damaged when a fire broke out at the Ya’ik market in Semarang on Saturday evening.
“The value of buildings damaged in the fire is around Rp 190 million [US$14,184.41] while the total financial loss caused by the incident reaches around Rp 4.9 billion. We will help them [fire victims], although our help may not be proportional to the losses experienced by the market’s vendors,” he said as quoted by tribunnews.com on Monday. The mayor made the statement after meeting with the Semarang Market Agency and representatives of the Ya’ik market vendors at the Hotel Metro, Semarang.
Hendrar said the Semarang administration, via the Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), would give social assistance to the fire victims.
“This aid is a form of stimulation given in the hope that vendors will be able to revive their businesses again. We will approach state lenders Bank Mandiri and BRI and ask them to give payment postponements for fire victims who have loans with those two banks,” he said.
The mayor further said the administration had not made any decision to relocate the vendors in the near future. “The vendors don’t want to be relocated. They’ve said they will use their kiosks after the administration completes the [kiosk] renovation,” said Hendrar.
On Sunday, the Semarang Police’s Indonesia Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (Inafis) team was dispatched to the fire location to investigate the major cause of the incident. The police have not yet come to any conclusions about the exact cause of the incident, saying that they still need to carry out laboratory checks on all evidence taken from the scene.
Eight kiosks at the Ya’ik Baru market in Semarang were engulfed by fire at around 7:30 p.m. local time on Saturday. The fire was fully extinguished at 9 p.m. The incident sparked concerns about the 423 vendors of the market. Many took their goods out of their respective kiosks due to fears that another fire might erupt.
The vendors' worries are not without precedent. On May 9 and 10, 2015, a fire at the nearby Johar market caused 4,800 vendors at the historical market to lose their kiosks. The fire spread to half of the kiosks at the Ya’ik market.
To avoid further losses, Ya’ik market vendors strove to rescue their goods as soon as the fire broke out on Saturday evening. Goods were stored in several locations on Jl.Haji Agus Salim and Jl.Alon-alon Selatan, on the front yard of Hotel Metro and inside the Kauman grand mosque complex. Several vendors used pick-up trucks to take their goods away.
Speakingduring a visit after the incident, Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo expressed hopes that the Ya’ik market vendors could continue their economic activities. “I hope this problem can be immediately handled so that the vendors can sell in the market again,” he said.
“The exact number of kiosks burned in the incident will be immediately recorded. The Semarang mayor [Hendrar] can handle this situation, including seeking support from banks and corporate social responsibility activities to help the vendors," he added. (ebf)
