Jakarta (ANTARA) - The death toll in the inferno that engulfed Glodok Plaza, a shopping mall in West Jakarta, on Wednesday (Jan 15) evening, is confirmed to have increased to six, while some others remain missing.
The forensics department of the Police Hospital in East Jakarta received five of the six bodies by Friday morning, as confirmed by the hospital head, Brigadier General Prima Heru Yulihartono. Meanwhile, the sixth body is pending transfer to the hospital.
Yulihartono remarked that the police hospital has set up a team to assist with identifying individuals evacuated from the shopping mall. The team will also collaborate with the Indonesia Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (Inafis) and the police forensics laboratory (Puslabfor) teams.
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The authority also reported an increase in the number of those missing due to the Glodok Plaza fire from 11 to 14. However, it remains unclear whether the bodies recovered and sent to the police hospital correspond to those who are missing.
The missing persons were identified as Ade Aryati (29), Sinta Amelia (20), Aldrinas (29), Aulia Belinda (28), Odima Yukari (25), Deri Saiki (25), Indira Seviana Bela (25), Keren Shalom J (21), Intan Mutiara (26), Desty and Zukhi Radja (42), Chika Adinda Yustin (26), Muljadi (56), and Dian Cahyadi (38).
Meanwhile, Taman Sari Police’s criminal investigation unit chief, Commissioner Suparmin, stated that the fire in Glodok Plaza originated on the ninth floor rather than the previously reported seventh floor.
The blaze reportedly began in a room on the ninth floor that was once a discotheque and featured a digital billboard on its exterior wall. As the firefighting efforts faltered, flames spread to the eighth and seventh floors, he revealed.
Head of the West Jakarta Fire Brigade and Rescue Agency (Gulkarmat) operational unit, Syarifudin, also stated that the officers’ efforts to clear the area and search for the victims were hindered by the debris from a collapsed roof on the ninth floor, extensive fire damage, and scattered steel and room partition materials.
