JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post) : The Marbella Kemang Residence was gutted by a fire at 1 p.m. Monday which was believed to have been caused by a compression explosion in one of the apartment's towers.

South Jakarta Fire Agency Head Feddy Alling confirmed the incident and said the fire had burnt the sixth and seventh floor in Tower B of the complex and deaths were reported.

The other tower at the complex remained untouched by the fire.

Freddy said he suspected the fire had come from welding activity on the construction site.

"We were lucky the fire did not spread to surrounding areas -- there was no thinner or painting material which would easily have spread the fire," he told news portal Detik.com.

Freddy said his office sent 16 firefighter teams to the site, and they were able to stop the fire in 30 minutes.

Separately, a marketing staffer at the Marbella, Danu, denied there was a fire blast in his office.

"It was just a problem with a compressor on the sixth floor. It was burnt and caused heavy smoke around the place," he said.

Danu said firefighters had handled the incident well.