11 dead as fire destroys market in Indonesia

At least 11 people, including six children, have died after a fire swept through a market and nearby buildings in Paniai, Central Papua province, Indonesia.

The blaze broke out shortly after midnight on Monday and spread rapidly through tightly packed kiosks and houses in the eastern region, according to local police.

Police spokesman Henry J. Manurung said officers discovered the victims after firefighters brought the blaze under control.

“During the inspection, officers found 11 victims who had died with burn injuries,” Henry said in a statement, adding that five of the victims were adults while six were children.

The children were between two and nine years old, according to the police spokesman.

The fire reportedly burned for more than three hours, destroying at least 40 kiosks and houses despite efforts by firefighters using trucks and water cannons to contain the flames.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the incident, which had not been established at the time of reporting.

Henry attributed the difficulty in extinguishing the blaze to the arrangement of the buildings in the area.

“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,” he said.

Deadly fires have previously occurred in Indonesia. In December, a fire at a seven-storey office building in Central Jakarta killed 22 people, with police identifying an exploding drone battery on the ground floor as the likely cause.

In another incident in 2023, an explosion at a nickel-processing facility in eastern Indonesia killed at least 12 people.