Pertamina: Two Fire Points At The Indramayu Balongan Factory Have Been Extinguished

JAKARTA - PT Pertamina (Persero) said that two of the four tanks that caught fire at the Balongan Refinery, Indramayu, West Java, were successfully extinguished using foam.

Pertamina Senior Vice President for Corporate Communication and Investor Relations Agus Suprijanto in his statement in Jakarta, Wednesday, said the T-301H tank went out at around 01.30 WIB in the morning, then followed by the T-301E tank at around 06.44 WIB.

"Two other tanks are still under fire", said Agus Suprijanto as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, March 31.

Even though the fire has been extinguished, cooling with fire trucks continues to ensure there is no more flash.

The orientation of the fire fighting equipment has also been made with the next target of two burning tanks, namely the T-301F tank and the T-301G tank.

At the beginning of the incident, continued Agus, the Pertamina Emergency Team had located a hotspot in the bund wall or embankment around the T-301 tank, which contained four fuel storage tanks.

Extinguishing was also carried out by using foam to the perimeter of the bund wall and the center of the fire, as well as deploying 10 fire engines from Pertamina Group and the local government.

"Pertamina remains focused on extinguishing the fires in the other two tanks and continues to exert all its power with offensive fire handling", said Agus.

The Balongan refinery fire broke out in the early hours of Monday, March 29th. Residents around the location smelled a very strong odor on Sunday, March 28, evening.

A few hours later the residents heard a very loud bang accompanied by a fire that burned the refinery tank.

As a result of the fire, as many as 912 residents were forced to flee to a safer place. The fire also left 29 minor injuries and six others seriously injured.