The severe fire that hit the fishermen's residential area in Dock IX, Tanjung Ria Village, North Jayapura District, Jayapura City, Thursday (6/10/2022) at around 7.00 WIT this morning made dozens of families flee to safe places.

The severe fire that hit the fishermen's residential area is thought to have originated from a house that sells gasoline-type fuel for fishermen.

“That fire came from that house, La Nuhri's house, a gasoline seller. The incident happened this morning at around 7:00 WIT. The fire quickly spread to other houses,” said La Kainco, a local resident who was met at the scene.

Wa Mina, a local resident, said that the fire began to appear around 7:00 am local time. He and his two children tried to escape from their house which was about 20 meters from the burning houses.

"Just now when I got home I bought lunch for my son to go to school, right at home I saw people running in this alley, when I checked it turned out that there was already a fire growing from the gasoline dealer's house. Me and my three children immediately fled the house, because our house was not far from the burning houses. Thank God our house is okay, said Wa Mina with a frightened face.

Yanti, a local resident, was forced to evacuate when she saw a fire that continued to grow at the scene. According to Yanti, it is feared that the fire will spread to their house which is not far from the scene.

“I only bring what I need, we have been victims in the past because of a fire at this location, so I am worried that the fire will hit our house again. But thank God, our house was safe, we just evacuated the children and a number of things," said Yanti at the refugee camp.

The fire that spread quickly and strong winds because the location of the house was right near the edge of the sea and densely populated made firefighters look a bit difficult to extinguish the fire.

"It was a bit difficult during the blackout earlier. You can see for yourself that this area is densely populated, and residents are densely populated at the scene. The wind is also strong, because it is near the seafront, but we are still trying to put out the fire,” said one of the firefighters at the scene.

Seen at the location of the incident, precisely on the main road, as many as 6 units of fire engines and water Canons from the Jayapura City Government, TNI AL and Papuan Police were deployed to extinguish the fire at the scene.

There is no known material loss in this event. However, the loss is estimated at hundreds of millions of rupiah.

Local police are still investigating the fire incident.

"We don't know the exact cause yet (the cause of the fire). Just ask the Chief of Police, Mas, we are still focused on rescuing residents who are affected by the disaster, "said a member of the Police at the scene.

It took about four hours for the new officers to control the situation. Where the officers seemed to have a little difficulty in extinguishing the fire because the location of the incident was densely populated and a bit far from the main road.