A fire that broke out late Friday at a fuel storage depot in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, killed at least 17 people, according to authorities.
The fire, now under control, left 50 injured, the Jakarta Fire Department wrote on Twitter. The fuel storage station, operated by the state oil and gas company Pertamina, is located near a densely populated area in the Tanah Merah district, north of the Indonesian capital.
An investigation to determine the cause of the fire is still ongoing, the chief of staff of the country’s Armed Forces, Dudung Abdurachman, told reporters.
Images of the fire, broadcast on television channels, showed hundreds of people running in terror as thick clouds of black smoke filled the sky.
North Jakarta fire chief Satriadi Gunawan told Agence France-Presse that he had received preliminary information that a pipe had burst in that warehouse.
The official also pointed out that the firefighters – more than 250 – intervened quickly to contain the fire, in order to prevent the flames from reaching nearby residential areas.
Pertamina CEO Nicke Widyawati has vowed to conduct “a comprehensive internal study to ensure that a similar accident does not happen again.”
Widyawati said the country’s fuel supply was not affected and other terminals took over.
In 2009 there was a fire in the same warehouse and another one in the vicinity affected 40 homes in 2014, with no victims being recorded in both incidents.
In 2021, a huge fire broke out in West Java, at the Balongan refinery, one of the largest in the country, also owned by Pertamina. The fire was active for two days and caused the evacuation of thousands of people.
Source: TSF
