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Police to Probe High-Rise BII Fire in Surabaya
Amir Tejo | June 22, 2009

The fire that engulfed about 10 floors of Wisma Bank International Indonesia in Surabaya on Sunday took several hours to bring under control. No casualties were reported. (Antara Photo) The fire that engulfed about 10 floors of Wisma Bank International Indonesia in Surabaya on Sunday took several hours to bring under control. No casualties were reported. (Antara Photo)
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Surabaya. Police are now investigating the cause of a fire that consumed at least 10 floors of Wisma Bank International Indonesia building on Jalan Pemuda here on Sunday, authorities said.

Eyewitnesses said the fire started at around 5:30 a.m. on the 11th floor. Security guards tried to extinguish it, but to no avail, prompting them to call the fire brigade. No less than 10 fire trucks were dispatched to the site, but none had the equipment to reach the fire so they returned to their base.

“The ladders on the fire trucks are 30 meters long — at an elevation of about 45 degrees, they are effectively 28 meters long — but with the fire much higher than 28 meters, we couldn’t reach it,” the head of operational section of the fire brigade, Ari Bakti, said on location.

Bringing the fire under control — which took five hours — relied almost solely on the building’s hydrant system, which fortunately was functioning well. Floors 11 to 20 were severely damaged by the fire.

Wisma BII building management on Sunday was still unable to estimate the losses caused by the fire.

“We’re still waiting,” said Handoko, property manager of PT Sinar Mas Teladan, the Wisma BII building management. “We have to report to the police, who will then investigate. So it’s too early to estimate the loss.”

Handoko said the 20-story building had 1,250 square meters per floor, and every floor housed several companies.

Meanwhile, Surabaya Deputy Mayor Arif Afandi admitted that the fire department was short of equipment and personnel.

Arif said that given the many tall buildings in Surabaya, the department should already have the equipment necessary to fight high-rise fires, particularly crane-equipped fire trucks that could reach heights of more than 100 meters.

He said the mayoralty had submitted a proposal to the local legislative council (DPRD) to buy crane-equipped fire trucks.

“The request to the DPRD was submitted a long time ago, but has not yet been approved. The equipment is vital because of the number of high-rise buildings in the city,” he said, adding that each truck cost about Rp 20 billion to Rp 30 billion ($3 million).