Guwahati: A fire that started on Friday at a fuel storage depot run by the Indonesian national energy company Pertamina in the nation’s capital Jakarta resulted in at least 16 fatalities.
The fire started during the evening of Friday. In the heavily populated neighbourhoods, it caused some houses to burn and panicked neighbouring inhabitants, some of whom fled with their possessions, according to broadcasters’ footage.
Rahmat Kristanto, a firefighting unit official, reported that two of the 16 fatalities were children and that 50 people, including one kid, were hurt.
According to Jakarta’s acting governor Heru Budi Hartono, the majority of the injured victims had burns, and the government will cover their medical bills.
Videos posted on social media contained sounds of explosions, but Reuters was not immediately able to confirm their authenticity.
Locals gathered in the vicinity of the storage facility as firefighters carried orange corpse bags from the fire. According to Jakarta’s disaster-mitigation agency, locals were relocated to nearby mosques.
A local named Siswandi, 21, described the situation as “chaotic, as we were fleeing out alongside injured victims who were partly burned, and it generated fear among everyone,” and said he was removing all of his important documents from his home.
The main fire station in Jakarta’s call centre reported that 51 units had been sent to the Plumpang neighbourhood in North Jakarta and described the fire as being enormous.
In a statement, Pertamina stated that the incident’s cause was still under investigation and that evacuation procedures were still in place.
The business claimed that because it planned to transfer supply from other terminals, the fuel supply for the Jakarta area remained secure.
Pertamina chief executive officer Nicke Widyawati apologised for the fire and stated it will “reflect internally to avoid similar situations from ever occurring again”.
Over 300,000 kilolitres of fuel can be stored at the station, according to the nation’s energy ministry.