As many as 95 personnel of East Jakarta Fire Handling and Rescue Sub-agency successfully extinguished fire that burned 350 kiosks at Los C2 Fruit Sub-grocery of Kramat Jati Market, East Jakarta.

Head of the sub-agency, Muchtar Zakaria explained the difficult and high-risk fire situation forced the team to deploy a docking unit or remote-controlled firefighting robot. Additionally, an LUV 60 was deployed to help extinguish the thick smoke inside the kiosk.

"The smoke in the kiosk was so thick that sophisticated equipment was needed to reach the source of the fire," he explained, Monday (12/15).

He added that this equipment is used because personnel can not directly access the fire source. Firefighting robots are used to break down piles of materials still containing embers, such as iron, wood, paper, cardboard, and other particles.

"Apart from helping with initial handling, this step also aims to prevent personnel from being exposed to flames at close range," he added.

According to him, personnel also used foam to extinguish the fire. This was run because the kiosk contained a large amount of carbide, commonly used to speed up fruit ripening.

"The carbide is suspected to be the cause of several explosions. Using foam is considered more effective, as using water can still potentially keep the fire burning," he continued.

He admitted that there were no fatalities in the fire incident. The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation by authorities.