Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Thu, February 9, 2012
Archive Search

Pertamina Fire Extinguished
Nivell Rayda | January 19, 2009

Share This Page
0
0
0
0
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

Be the first to write your opinion!

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina said on Monday morning that a massive fire at its Plumpang, North Jakart depot had been put out.

Pertamina vice president director Iin Arifin said the fire was extinguished at around 6:30 in the morning, and that Pertamina had organized a team to investigate the cause of the blaze.

He reiterated that energy supplies would not be affected.

"Our fuel stock is enough, for now we do not need additional imports," said Arifin.

The fire started when an explosion ripped through the Plumpang depot, Pertamina’s largest, on Sunday night. Its 50-meter high flames were visible more than 10 kilometers away.

Brandon Hoover, an American resident at the Gading Kirana complex next to the fuel depot, said a “powerful shockwave” hit his house at about 9:15 p.m. “[The plant] is literally just over the wall from us, around 300 meters away. We felt the wall of our complex shake when the explosion hit and the sky started turning red,” Hoover said. “I immediately grabbed a few things and got in the car to my workplace because I wasn’t sure what was happening,” he said. Hoover said other residents of the complex also evacuated.

“The explosion was so great it literally rocked the neighborhood. It was like an earthquake. And many first thought it was an earthquake,” said Rachman, a local resident. “The whole area panicked: as we rushed outside our homes we could see fire from the depot. It must have been 40 meters high.”

A number of local residents were observed running from their homes directly after the initial explosion, fearing other tanks could explode. “The tank that caught fire held diesel. We were afraid that the fire would ignite the gasoline tanks,” said Rini, another resident, adding that the fire department was quick to arrive. “The fire station is only 500 meters away from the scene so they arrived in about 10 minutes. Pertamina also had its own fire fighters but there wasn’t enough of them,” she said.

The Plumpang depot reportedly provides up to 8,000 kiloliters of diesel fuel and 7,500 kiloliters of gasoline to gas stations all over Greater Jakarta every day. Pertamina says the Plumpang depot has a number of storage tanks up to double the size of the one burning.

Jakarta’s Traffic Management Center said the fire had caused severe congestion in the area and police had closed the nearby Artha Gading toll exit to avoid further gridlock. Adding to the congestion were long queues at a number of Pertamina gas stations, with residents believing the blaze would cause serious fuel shortages.

Jakarta Police promised to investigate the cause of the blaze but could not say if the fire was caused by an accident or by sabotage.

Police last year uncovered a plot to blow up the Plumpang depot, and detained five men who they said were members of regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Additional reporting: Ashlee Betteridge, JG and Reuters