At least 17 killed in fire at Indonesia fuel storage station

At least 17 people have died in a huge fire that broke out on Friday after 8 p.m. local time (1300 GMT), at a fuel storage station operated by Indonesia’s state energy company Pertamina in the capital Jakarta. Sixty people have been reported to be injured and many others severely burnt. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained while Indonesian officials are urging for an audit of all fuel facilities and infrastructures. Near the storage station, residents crowded the area while firefighters carried orange body bags from the fire. Jakarta’s disaster-mitigation agency said residents had been evacuated into nearby mosques.

According to the country’s energy ministry, this fuel station has a capacity of over 300,000 kilo-litres. Similar incidents had happened in the past as well when a fire broke out at the same depot in 2009 and again near the depot in 2014 affecting 40 houses but no casualties were reported in either case. In 2021, a massive blaze broke out at the Balongan refinery in West Java, also owned by state oil company Pertamina and one of Indonesia’s biggest oil refineries.