At least 17 people were killed and dozens injured in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Friday in a fire that broke out at a state-run fuel depot. Firefighters managed to bring it under control, authorities said.
An investigation is underway to determine the origin of this disaster which occurred after 8:00 p.m. local time (2:00 p.m. in Switzerland) in the installations of the national oil company Pertamina, declared in front of the press the chief of staff of the armed forces Dudung Abdurachman .
There are at least 17 dead and 50 injured, Jakarta firefighters said on Twitter. The fire, which was extinguished within hours, prompted the evacuation of densely populated neighborhoods near the depot, located in the north of the city, according to authorities.
Television footage showed people fleeing through narrow streets with huge flames rising skyward behind them. The fire chief for the north of the capital, Satriadi Gunawan, told AFP he had received preliminary information that a pipe had burst in the depot.
First fire in 2009
He said his men, more than 250 in total, moved quickly to contain the fire from the Plumpang depot and prevent it from reaching nearby housing areas. The general manager of the national oil company Pertamina, Nicke Widyawati, pledged to carry out “a thorough internal study in order to prevent a similar accident from happening again”.
She said the country’s fuel supply had not been affected, with other terminals taking over. A fire broke out in 2009 at the same depot and another fire that occurred nearby affected 40 homes in 2014, with no casualties reported in either case.
In 2021, a huge fire broke out at the Balongan refinery in West Java, one of the largest in the country, also owned by Pertamina. The fire had lasted two days and caused the evacuation of thousands of people after an explosion.
/ATS