Hundreds evacuated as Pertamina fire kills at least 17 in Jakarta

Probe continues to determine the cause of the fire, but the power company says a pipe leak was discovered before the fire.

Residents have searched the remains of their charred homes after a fire at a fuel depot in Jakarta killed at least 17 people, including two children.

The fire, which started at about 8pm (01:00 GMT) on Friday from a fuel line at Pertamina’s fuel storage depot in Plumpang in the capital Jakarta, quickly spread to nearby homes and caused panic among residents of the densely populated area.

Sixty people were injured, many severely burned, while hundreds more who lived in residential areas near the depot had to be evacuated.

The North Jakarta Red Cross said 342 people had been evacuated and four tents had been set up for the displaced.

Three people were still missing after the fire, and Indonesian officials called for an audit of “all fuel facilities and infrastructure” in the country the next day.

Vice President Ma’ruf Amin visited the crime scene on Saturday and confirmed that 17 people were killed and 60 injured.

He suggested moving the depot out of residential areas.

“I hope this depot can be moved…so that it becomes safer and this area is reclassified to meet the requirements of a real neighborhood in the capital,” he told reporters.

Footage broadcast Friday evening showed people screaming and fleeing down narrow roads with an inferno lighting up the sky behind them.

A fireball was seen over the North Jakarta skyline with sirens blaring in the background.

Abdul Syukur, who also lives nearby, told Kompas TV that residents said they could smell the fuel about 30 minutes before the fire.

“The smell was so strong that people vomited and some almost passed out,” he said.

Another witness, Swastono Aji, told AFP news agency the smell was “so strong we could barely breathe”.

“We were leaving this area when we suddenly heard a very loud explosion.”

‘Mini apocalypse’

“It was like a bomb, like a mini-apocalypse. It was unimaginable,” witness Jamilul Asror, 45, told AFP, calling on authorities to move residents further away.

National Police Chief Listyo Sigit said at the scene that at least three people are still missing.

Top officials have called for an investigation into the cause of the fire and an audit of the country’s energy facilities following several recent fires.

“After we had several fires… it is clear that we need to check all fuel facilities and infrastructure, especially tanks and refineries,” Sugeng Suparwoto, head of the parliament’s energy committee, told local broadcaster Metro TV on Saturday.

In 2021, a massive fire broke out at the Balongan Refinery in West Java, also owned by Pertamina.

That same depot saw fires in 2009 and again in 2014 – when flames spread to 40 nearby homes. There were no casualties in either case.

The morning after the fire, houses piled against the barbed wire fences of the Pertamina facility were gutted and blackened, burning out rows of cars.