Fire at PT ASL Batam Shipyard, Police Ensure No Human Casualties

BATAM - The Barelang Police Chief, Kombes Polisi Anggoro Wicaksono, confirmed that the fire that occurred at the PT ASL Shipyard Indonesia shipyard, Tanjung Uncang, Batam City, on Sunday afternoon did not cause any casualties, either injuries or deaths.

"It's true that a fire occurred this afternoon, there were no casualties," Anggoro said when confirmed in Batam, Antara, Sunday, January 25.

The personnel of the Batu Aji Police together with the Barelang Police and the Identification Unit of the Criminal Investigation Unit have been at the scene to collect data and information to ensure that the handling of the fire runs well.

Based on the initial suspicion, the fire was triggered by a system error exacerbated by weather conditions.

"The suspected temporary because of the system error and the fire grew due to strong winds," he said.

Information collected from the Turjawali Ditsamapta Team of the Riau Islands Police stated that the fire occurred at around 14.00 WIB. The fire was known to have engulfed the Elnusa Trans Samudera ship, which was undergoing repair or docking at the shipyard owned by the Singaporean company.

The extinguishing effort was carried out by the rescue unit of PT ASL Shipyard together with BP Batam. The fire was completely extinguished at around 16.00 WIB.

The fire incident at the PT ASL Shipyard Tanjung Uncang shipyard adds to the list of similar incidents that have occurred at the location. Throughout 2025, two major fire incidents with the same ship object, namely MT Federal II, were recorded.

The first fire occurred on June 24, 2025 and caused four workers to die and five others to be injured. The next incident occurred on October 15, 2025 which killed 14 people and injured 17 other workers.

Both 2025 fire incidents have been investigated by the Barelang Police and are suspected of containing elements of negligence which resulted in the death of others.

In the case of the June 24, 2025 fire, the police named three people as suspects. Meanwhile, in the October 2025 fire, as many as seven people were named as suspects, consisting of four foreign nationals and three Indonesian citizens.