Dramatic footage shows giant dome of Jakarta mosque collapsing after major fire

No casulties were reported

Videos of the massive fire that engulfed the dome of the Jami Mosque in North Jakarta in Indonesia during renovation on Wednesday, have emerged online.

Dramatic footage showed the moment the dome collapsed into a plume of dust and smoke around 3pm on Wednesday.

The local police have confirmed that nobody was injured during the incident. However, the investigation into it is ongoing and authorities said four workers of the company contracted to renovate the mosque, have been interrogated so far.

The mosque is inside the building complex of Jakarta Islamic Centre, a think-tank on Islamic studies and development. The Islamic centre also houses educational, commercial and research facilities.

According to the head of the mosque Muhammad Subki, the fire broke out when workers of a construction company were busy with renovation work.

“The fire began to appear from the top of the dome and then spread to other areas, but so far it’s not clear what caused the fire,” he said.

He added that the fire spread quickly due to strong wind and engulfed a large part of the mosque.

Incidentally, Gulf Today reported that in 2002 too the mosque’s dome caught fire during renovation in October of that year. It had taken firefighters five hours to extinguish the blaze.

Locals were saddened by the tragic incident and expressed their shock on social media. One wrote: “Always tragic to see historic religious buildings destroyed by fire.”

Another wrote: “Reports suggest the building was undergoing renovation - such works bring hot works & other fire hazards. Sadly as we saw with #NotreDame #ShuriCastle #WindsorCastle & other major fires the devastating loss of cultural icons.”

Others said that the visual “breaks my heart”.

The collapse of the dome of the Jami mosque comes just a few weeks after the football stadium stampede that killed more than 130 people. The government announced that the Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang will be torn down and rebuilt.