Fire engulfs 58 buildings in Makassar

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Saturday August 24 2013


Around 58 buildings were gutted by fire on Friday in two separate locations in Makassar, South Sulawesi, but no casualties had yet been reported, an official said.

Bahtiar Tawil of the Makassar Fire Department said that at around 8 a.m. the first fire destroyed eight shop-houses on Jl. Bau Mangga, while the second fire severely damaged 50 houses in a Public Works Agency housing complex on Jl. Nuri later in the afternoon.

It took four hours for local fire fighters, with the help of a search and rescue (SAR) team, police, soldiers and personnel from the local state-owned water company, to extinguish the fire and get the situation under control.

Bahtiar said that vehicular access to the two locations, which were reached via a number of narrow streets, had resulted in the time taken to put out the fires.

“The fires spread quickly due to strong winds and crowds of people wanting to see what was going on were blocking the streets,” Bahtiar said as quoted by kompas.com on Saturday



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