0 Candle starts fire at 14 inundated houses

At least 14 houses caught fire in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, on Friday, purportedly as a result of a candle left unattended by a resident. State power firm PT PLN had cut the power in the flooded area to avoid electrocution. “We think the source was the home of a resident who used a candle for light,” East Jakarta Fire Department operations head Idris DN told reporters on Friday as quoted by kompas.com. 

Idris said that the resident who allegedly lit the candle had chosen to remain in his house while others in the housing complex had left due to the floods. Initially, people in the vicinity did not realize there was a fire until it engulfed the other houses. “The fire only affected the upper levels of the houses because the lower levels were inundated,” Idris said. It took firefighters, with the help of 16 fire engines, one hour to extinguish the flames because of difficulties faced due to its location. “No fatalities were recorded. We are still trying to locate the owner of the house [where the fire began],” Idris said. The damage value has yet to be determined.

source : the jakarta post