And fire devastated an office building in the capital of Indonesia, Jakartaon Tuesday, and killed at least 22 peopleincluding a pregnant woman, according to police.
Flames engulfed the seven-story building, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky and causing panic among nearby residents and workers in a central Jakarta neighborhood.
The fire is believed to have started around noon. on the first floor of the building in the Kemayoran neighborhood before spreading to other floors, said Central Jakarta police chief Susatyo Purnomo Condro.
Hundreds of people and 29 fire trucks They were deployed to try to contain the flames. The cause is still under investigation.
Many workers in the building, which was used as sales and storage office for a drone company, they were out for lunch when a battery started sparking in a storage and testing area, Condro said, citing several witnesses.
The fire was extinguished after three hours of intense effort. At least 22 bodies — seven men and 15 women, including a pregnant woman — were recovered from the building and taken to the police hospital in east Jakarta for identification.
“It is suspected that a short circuit or a thermal failure in drone battery caused an explosion and fire,” a survivor named Dimitri, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name, told local television.
“Some colleagues on the upper floors tried to escape by moving to the roof while calling for help,” he added.
Television reports showed the tense evacuation of more than a dozen trapped workers, including many women, from the sixth floor using a ladder emergency extended by firefighters. People had to be carried down one by one, and several had trouble breathing due to the thick smoke as they waited their turn.
Families anxiously waited for news in hospitals or near the building rented by PT Terra Drone Indonesiaa company that provides unmanned aerial vehicle technology for various industrial sectors such as construction, mining, oil and gas, energy, plantations and urban planning.