Showing posts with label houses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label houses. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

20 houses in E. Java destroyed by storm, landslide

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 02/16/2011 12:11 PM | Archipelago

At least 20 houses in Ngumbul village in Pacitan, East Java, were damaged on Wednesday by a storm and a landslide following heavy rains on Tuesday evening.

One of the villagers, Jemain, said all the tiles had been blown off his roof, and that half of his house had collapsed, metronews.com reported.

The village is located in a remote area of Tulakan district and not all of its residents have access to electricity.

The storm also hit Tegalombo, Arjosari and Bandar districts.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Wildfire destroys 41 houses in Western Australia

Associated Press, Perth, Australia | Mon, 02/07/2011 8:44 AM | World

A wildfire that tore across the outskirts of an Australian city over the weekend has destroyed at least 41 homes and damaged another 19, authorities said Monday. One firefighter was injured and several people were treated for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters are close to stopping the spread of that wildfire and another that broke out over the weekend in the same area of Western Australia state. The two blazes have razed 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) of forested land to the north and southeast of Perth since Saturday, Fire and Emergency Services Authority spokesman Alan Gale said.

In Roleystone and the nearby community of Kelmscott, at least 41 houses were destroyed and another 19 damaged, despite the efforts of 200 firefighters, the authority's chief operations officer, Craig Hynes, told reporters. He said the tally could rise as a survey of the scorched area continued.

A firefighter who was injured fighting that blaze, which erupted shortly before noon Sunday, was in stable condition at a hospital, Hynes said. The authority has not released details of how that female firefighter was hurt. Several residents took themselves to hospitals after suffering minor smoke inhalation, Hynes said.

"The pleasing thing is that there's been no serious injuries or fatalities," he said.

Residents who were evacuated from the path of the blaze Sunday have not yet been allowed to return to their homes due to the continuing fire danger, Hynes said.

Further north, in the Swan Valley district, some 150 firefighters using water-bombing helicopters and trucks had contained another fire by early Monday. There was no property lost there, Gale said.

"Conditions are still windy, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday," he said.

About 100 people were told to evacuate their homes as authorities tried to contain that blaze, which started Saturday night and had scorched about 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) of forest land by Monday.

The Roleystone fire was accidentally started when a man using an electric grinder in his backyard ignited dry grass with sparks, the Fire and Emergency Services Authority said in a statement. The other fire began when a tree branch that was blown down by strong winds hit electrical transmission infrastructure, it said.

The fires in Australia's far west come as huge areas of the east coast recover from a major cyclone that struck in Queensland state last week and from flooding from drenching rains in Queensland and southern Victoria state.

February is the last month of summer in Australia and also marks the height of both the monsoon season in the tropical north and the riskiest period for wildfires.

Survivors of wildfires that ripped across Victoria, killing 173 people and razing 2,000 homes, marked the second anniversary of Australia's worst fire disaster Monday.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Fire razes five houses in Bandung

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 01/21/2011 3:37 PM | Archipelago

Five houses in the densely populated Sumadinata lane off Jl. Pasundan, Bandung, were razed by fire on Friday at lunchtime.

"It happened at around 12:15 while people were at their Friday prayers," said Mohammad Hadi, a resident whose house was destroyed in the blaze.

The fire, Hadi said, had started when from a candle set some curtains on fire at an elderly woman’s house. The fire spread and soon razed the building, belonging to Ibu Esih.

"I don’t know what the candle was for. When I saw it, it was already a large fire and we immediately called the fire brigade," Hadi said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

No one was hurt in the incident, as all residents had left their homes as soon as Hadi noticed the fire.

Bandung Fire Brigade chief Yedi Z deployed six fire trucks to the scene.

"The residents assisted us to put out the fire. If we hadn't acted as quickly as we did, the fire would have spread to more houses as this is a dense settlement,” Yadi said at the scene.