BNPB Ensures No Heavy Damage Due To The Bekasi Earthquake

Head of BNPB Lt. Gen. Suharyanto in a press conference at the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture office, Jakarta, Thursday (21/8/2025). ANTARA/Asep Firmansyah

Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Lt. Gen. Suharyanto confirmed that there was no serious damage caused by the 4.9 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the Bekasi area on Wednesday (20/8) night.

"There were no casualties. Around 26 houses were lightly damaged. That's the average old houses. There are houses without iron stamps, there is a ceiling of one school that falls, which goes down," said Suharyanto as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, August 21.

Suharyanto said BNPB had deployed a team to monitor conditions after the earthquake rocked the area.

According to him, the Karawang Regency Government, which was affected by the earthquake, did not determine an emergency status. BNPB will move if it gets a request for assistance from the local district government.

"Until now, the local government has not set an emergency status. This means that we will wait for it later if they ask for help from the central government, BNPB will go down," he said.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) detected an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.9 centered on land about 14 kilometers southeast of Bekasi Regency, West Java, on Wednesday (20/8) at 19.54 WIB.

The epicenter was at coordinates 6.48 south latitude and 107.24 east longitude with a depth of 10 kilometers.

Earthquake vibrations were felt by people in a number of areas, including the MMI III scale in Purwakarta and Bekasi, II'II MMI in Jakarta, Depok, Tangerang City, South Tangerang, and at Pelabuhan Ratu (vibrations felt real inside the house - vibrations felt as if a truck had passed).

BMKG said the 4.9 magnitude earthquake that was felt to shake Jakarta and its surroundings on Wednesday (20/8) night was triggered by fault activity riding a bow behind West Java (West Java back arc thrust).

"Paying attention to the location of the epicenter and the depth of the hypocenter, this earthquake is a type of shallow earthquake triggered by fault activity rising a bow behind West Java," said BMKG Earthquake and Tsunami Director Daryono.