Police authorities said a fire incident, which occurred on Monday morning in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua region razed a market and killed 11 people, including six children.
A police spokesman, Henry Manurung explained in a statement that the fire was first spotted in the town of Paniai in Central Papua province shortly after midnight, before spreading to several shops and houses in the area.
“During the inspection, officers found 11 victims who had died with burn injuries. Of the 11 victims, five of them were adults, while the other six were children,” Henry said in a statement.
The statement added that the children were aged between two and nine years old, as authorities are still investigating the cause of the inferno.
The fire, which raged for more than three hours, destroyed at least 40 kiosks and houses, despite the deployment of fire trucks and water cannons.
“The intensity of the blaze and the fact that the houses and stalls were all packed tightly together made the firefighting process take quite a long time,” Henry said.
Report said deadly fire incidents are not uncommon in Indonesia.
Recall that 22 people reportedly died when a fire tore through a seven-storey office building in Central Jakarta last December.
Police attributed the cause to a drone battery explosion on the ground floor of the building.
Another explosion, which occurred at a nickel-processing plant in the country’s east in 2023, killed almost 12 people.
