A fire that tore through a seven-story office building in central Jakarta killed at least 22 people and left families waiting for news at hospitals and outside the charred structure, according to Indonesian police and rescuers.
The blaze broke out around midday in the Kemayoran neighborhood and spread quickly through the building, sending thick black smoke into the sky and drawing a major emergency response. Central Jakarta police chief Susatyo Purnomo Condro said the fire was believed to have started on the first floor before moving upward. He said witnesses told investigators that a battery sparked in a storage and testing area while many workers were out for lunch.
Hundreds of personnel and 29 fire trucks were sent to the scene. Firefighters needed about three hours to extinguish the blaze, but Condro said the building remained too smoky to enter safely for a complete search even after the main fire was out. He said crews would sweep the structure again in case more victims were inside.
Police said 22 bodies had been recovered by the time of the AP report, including seven men and 15 women, among them a pregnant woman. The bodies were taken to a police hospital in East Jakarta for identification. Authorities said most of the victims died from smoke inhalation rather than burns, which matched accounts from witnesses who described workers trying to get away from the smoke by moving toward the rooftop.
The building was used as a sales and storage office for PT Terra Drone Indonesia, a company that provides unmanned aerial vehicle services for industries such as construction, mining, oil and gas, energy, plantations and urban planning. Television reports showed firefighters lowering trapped workers from the sixth floor one by one with an emergency ladder. At least 19 people were rescued, some with minor injuries, though rescuers said several were weak and traumatized.
A police officer and a firefighter also had breathing difficulties while working at the scene. Jakarta Gov. Pramono Anung urged company leaders to build a stronger safety culture and prepare evacuation plans. The cause of the fire remained under investigation, but the early account from police and witnesses pointed to a battery-related problem in an area used for storage and testing, underscoring how quickly a workplace fire can become fatal when smoke fills a multi-story building with limited escape routes.
The scene also showed how smoke can be as deadly as flame in a dense office building. Television reports said the evacuation from the sixth floor had to be done one person at a time, and several workers struggled to breathe while waiting their turn on the emergency ladder. That detail matters because it explains why the death toll rose so quickly even though firefighters were on site in force.
By the time authorities reached the identification stage, families were waiting at hospitals and near the building for confirmation of who had survived. The governor's remarks about emergency planning also pointed to a familiar lesson in industrial safety: if a workplace has storage rooms, testing areas and large numbers of workers inside, then evacuation routes and fire access need to be clear before an emergency begins.
