At least 20 people died in a massive fire at a seven-storey building in Indonesia‘s Jakarta on Tuesday, reported Reuters. Officials said the fire has been doused and efforts are underway to find more victims from inside the building. Addressing reporters, Susatyo Purnomo Condro, the head of Central Jakarta police, “Now, we are still focusing on evacuating victims and to do fire cooling.”
The fire broke out at the building of the office of Terra Drone Indonesia, that provides drones for aerial survey activities with clients in the mining to agriculture sectors, the report added.
It is the Indonesian unit of Japanese drone firm Terra Drone Corporation, the company’s website said. Footage from Kompas TV showed dozens of fire fighters were trying to evacuate the people inside. Some were seen carrying body bags from the building.
Some workers were seem trying to escape from the high floors of the building using portable ladders.
Hong Kong fire
The incident comes days after an intense blaze in Hong Kong killed more than 200 people after the fire engulfed about eight on November 26. The blaze, which left at least 70 people injured took a few days to fully extinguish. It had started on the lower-level netting around one building in the Wang Fuk Court complex. It then swept inside as the foam panels caught fire and blew out windows.
A new probe into the blaze has found that netting that covered scaffolding used in renovations was not up to fire-safety codes.
The fire rapidly spread due to flammable materials used in the scaffolding and potentially combustible construction materials like polystyrene foam on the buildings’ exterior, Al Jazeera reported.