Fire rages at Jakarta fuel depot

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 01/18/2009 11:08 PM | Jakarta A|A|A| A fuel depot in Plumpang, North Jakarta, which supplies fuel to Greater Jakarta, caught fire Sunday night, raising concern over fuel supplies in the coming days. Antara reported that the fire had been raging at state oil and gas firm Pertaminas largest fuel depot since 9:30 p.m. The cause of the fire was known. A total of 25 fire engines were deployed to the scene. Metro TV, reporting live from the scene, said people nearby initially believed there had been an earthquake, but learned the tremor was caused by an explosion at the Plumpang depot. A number of residents in the area have been evacuated from their homes to safer places, according to eyewitnesses and Metro TV. Flames from the Plumpang fire reached heights of 100 meters and could be seen from 10 kilometers away. A Pertamina official told detik.com that Plumpang supplied fuel to Greater Jakarta and even some towns in West Java. If the fire could not be brought under control, fuel supplies to these areas could be at risk. Pertamina has yet to release an official statement.

Fuel depot blaze put out in Jakarta

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Firefighters extinguished a massive blaze at a fuel depot in the Indonesian capital Monday morning after a day-long fire burned hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline.

People watch a fire at Jakarta's lone fuel depot on Sunday.

The fire sent black clouds of smoke billowing over the city at its peak, but firefighters managed to contain the conflagration to one of the six massive storage tanks at the depot. "Only one tank went up in flames during the fire. The other six tanks are safe," said Toharso, secretary of the state oil company Pertamina. Pertamina lost around 2500 kiloliters (660,000 gallons) of unleaded gasoline during the fire, Toharso said.

Despite Pertamina's statement that Jakarta had sufficient fuel reserves to last a week, Jakartans lined up at area gas stations as the tank burned Sunday. The company still has about 52,000 kiloliters on hand to serve the capital, Toharso said. Officials ordered nearby residents to evacuate, ordered power cut to the immediate vicinity to prevent any further conflagrations and cordoned off the area. Authorities were investigating the cause of the fire. Last October, police in Indonesia arrested five suspected militants who they said were planning to attack the depot. The suspected militants were believed to have ties to the al Qaeda-linked terrorist network, Jemaah Islamiyah, which aims to create a Muslim "superstate" across much of Southeast Asia. Authorities blame Jemaah Islamiyah for the Bali nightclub bombings of 2002 that killed more than 200 tourists, most of them Westerners. Investigators also suspect the group in subsequent attacks in Jakartaon the Australian Embassy and J.W. Marriott Hotel.
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