PALEMBANG, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian police were now hunting down the arsonists behind a fire that recently razed vacated bush fields near the athlete apartments compound at the Asian Games host venue of Jakabaring Sports City (JSC).
Suspecting the fire was started intentionally, South Sumatra Police Chief Zulkarnain said that efforts to hunt down the perpetrators were now underway and that intensive measures had been applied around the JSC to prevent fires from occurring again.
"We have sealed the scorched field with police line as part of our legal process. We are now searching for the perpetrators so that we can find out their motive to burn that area," Zulkarnain said here on Tuesday night.
Overseen by South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin, Indonesian authorities managed to extinguish the fire after deploying fire squad vehicles and five water bomber helicopters to the scene. The governor said the razed fields belonged to residents.
"I appreciate the swift and thorough response of related institutions over the fire here. They came here quickly to extinguish the fire," the governor said on location, thanking personnel from the military, police, fire squad, regional disaster mitigation agency and locals.
The governor gave assurances that the fire did not disrupt the Asian Games activities nor the athletes staying in JSC athlete apartment compound.
On a different occasion JSC Security Manager Rusli Nawi said smoke from the fire was seen in the athlete's apartment compound. The area scorched by the fire was around 2 hectares. He added that most of the athletes were competing in the sports venues at that time.
He added that the fire squad would spray more water on the ground of fore location around JSC to ensure that the fire is totally extinguished.
A fire in the same location occurred on August 10, the first day that Asiad athletes checked into the JSC apartments.
Authorities managed to extinguish that fire 14 hours after it was first seen burning.
