20160326 Indonesia Kampung Bandan residents still in a fog after fire
Indonesia Mar 26 2016 “Houses”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Kampung Bandan residents still in a fog after fire
Updated: 2016-03-26 10:34
A day after a fire blazed through a densely populated slum area in Kampung Bandan, North Jakarta, all residents had left were the clothes they were wearing and a thick layer of ash covering the place they used to call home.
At 2 p.m. on Friday, dozens of men were scrapping through the debris of their houses while their wives and children sat nearby, struggling to make some sense of the incident that ravaged about 100 of their makeshift houses.
Loud engines and the noise of trains passing along the railway located less than 10 meters away could not hide the sounds of crying infants and toddlers who were forced to spend the night in evacuation tents.
“Last night my granddaughter could not stop crying and asked if she could sleep on a bed,” Eli Diana told The Jakarta Post. “I don’t blame her. The tent must be very uncomfortable for a 4-year-old kid,” said the woman in a trembling voice while she attempted to hold back tears.
Eli said the fire broke out at about 6 p.m. when most of the men were performing the dusk prayers in a small mosque located near the neighborhood.
The fire caused a severe traffic jam at the Ancol toll road and forced the KRL electric commuter train to temporary halt operations of the Kampung Bandan-Angke route.
Less than 30 minutes later, the fire that started in one the houses had spread to the rest of the neighborhood.
The North Jakarta Fire Agency deployed 39 fire trucks to the scene and extinguished the blaze more than two hours later.
The fire trucks, Eli said, arrived when almost all of the houses had been burned to ground as the trucks had to struggle to get through the rush hour traffic. Although no fatalities were reported, he said the fire caused panic among residents.
Asked where she would be staying next, Eli said she had no idea.
“I still can’t believe that all my valuables have been destroyed by the fire.”
Kholik, an informal laborer who lived in the slum area, said he was praying in the musholla (prayer room) when a lot of his neighbors started to shout about the fire. He rushed home to salvage any belongings that he could grab.
“However, I was too late. I could not even see my house when I arrived as the fire had swept through it,” he told the Post.
Kholik said that he was uncertain about what he would do with his family after the fire, as the makeshift 3.5-square-meter house, where he lived with seven family members, was the only valuable thing he owned.
“I think borrowing some money and rebuilding the house is the best option, but I still don’t know who can lend me money in this situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ngadiah said her feet still shook every time she remembered Thursday’s incident. However, the 42-year-old woman said she was grateful enough that she could manage to save her most valuable treasures: her two sons and two daughters.
Having rented a 3-square-meter room in Kampung Bandan for the last nine years, Ngadiah said she would likely look for another rented house.
“My budget is not much though. It can’t be more expensive than Rp 400,000 (US$30) per month,” she said.
Contacted separately, North Jakarta Fire Agency head Satriadi Gunawan said his agency had yet to determine the cause of the fire that left 100 families homeless. He added that the firefighters did not have enough time to extinguish the fire as the makeshift houses, mostly made of plywood sheets, were built so close to each other.
Web Source: The Jakarta Post
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/03/26/kampung-bandan-residents-still-a-fog-after-fire.html