AGO Building Catches Fire

Jakarta. A building at the Attorney General’s Office in South Jakarta was engulfed by fire on Saturday night and it took hours for the firefighters to put the blaze under control.

Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin said no one was injured in the incident, but the blaze has severely destroyed a large part of the building.

He also said all key legal documents were safe.

“Investigation is underway, but more importantly all legal documents aren’t kept there and our detainees are safe in the back of the building. So everything is safe,” Burhanuddin told reporters.

“It was happening during holidays so nobody was at the building,” he added.

The fire destroyed the offices of human resources department, finance and general affairs, the top prosecutor said.

Chief security minister Mahfud M.D. tweeted all detainees at the AGO have been moved to another detention facility in Jakarta at around 9.00 p.m. for precautions.

“We can confirm that all documents are safe and the incident won’t hamper legal cases being handled by the AGO,” Mahfud said.

The Jakarta Fire Department first received report of the incident at around 7.30 p.m. and deployed a total of 38 fire trucks.

Fire Department Head Satriadi Gunawan said the fire affected the southern part of the building and efforts were being made to contain the blaze.

“From what we saw, the fire occurred in seven floors of the building and we are trying to prevent it from moving to the northern part of the building,” Satriadi said. 

"We deployed around 200 personnel to control the fire and thankfully there are many hydrants and other water sources here, including nearby Bulungan swimming pool. We will put out the fire soon,” he said.