Residents searched through the remains of their charred homes Saturday after a fuel storage depot fire in Jakarta left at least 17 people dead, including two children.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Residents searched through the remains of their charred homes Saturday as Indonesian state energy firm Pertamina apologised for a fire at a Jakarta fuel storage depot it said killed at least 18 people, including two children.
Thirty-five people were still being treated, with many suffering severe burns, while more than 1,300 people living in residential areas near the depot had to be evacuated. The death toll had risen by one during the day. National Police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo said the fire happened while fuel that had just arrived from another refinery was being reloaded.
That same depot saw fires in 2009 and again in 2014, when the flames spread to 40 houses nearby. No casualties were reported in either of those cases. “It was like a bomb, it was like a mini apocalypse. It was unimaginable,” said witness Jamilul Asror, 45, who called on authorities to relocate residents farther away.Footage broadcast Friday night showed people screaming and fleeing through narrow roads with an inferno lighting up the sky behind them.Pertamina’s Widyawati said Indonesia’s fuel supply had not been disrupted.
“It started with a very strong smell. It was so strong that we could hardly breathe,” witness Swastono Aji told AFP.Vice President Ma’ruf Amin visited the scene on Saturday and confirmed 17 people were killed and 60 more injured.“I hope this depot can be relocated… so it will be safer and this area will be rearranged so it meets the requirements of a proper neighbourhood in the capital,” he told reporters.
In 2021, a massive blaze broke out at the Balongan refinery in West Java, also owned by Pertamina and one of Indonesia’s biggest such facilities. One child stood in the middle of the debris, surveying the scorched scene as emergency workers evacuated one of the dead in a body bag.
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