Preventing Fires From Spread, 4 Tanks Of Pertamina Balongan Oil Refinery Isolated

Thick smoke from the Pertamina Balongan Indramayu oil refinery tank fire (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The isolation scheme is used in the handling of fires at the Pertamina Balongan oil refinery tank, Indramayu, West Java. The goal is that the fire that is still burning does not spread.

"The four storage tanks are still on and are now in a state of isolation so that it is possible that they will not spread to other tanks," said Head of Public Relations Division of the Indonesian Police, Kombes Ahmad Ramadhan, to reporters, Tuesday, March 30.

Apart from using the isolation scheme, the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) team was also deployed. The HSE team is a work unit that identifies and maps potential hazards that may occur in the work environment.

"Efforts are still ongoing by bringing in an HSE team, from the closest refinery unit, namely the Cilacap Pertamina refinery, the Pertamina EP refinery, the Pertamina refinery, and the Regional Disaster Management Agency in Indramayu," said Ramadhan.

The National Police is currently still involved in recording the number of victims and the damage caused by the Pertamina Balongan tank fire incident. Information gathering is carried out to determine the cause of the fire.

"Puslabfor Polri and Inafis Polda West Java continue to look for the cause of the tank explosion and carry out investigations or pulbaket related to the cause of the incident," continued Ramadhan.

In addition, the National Police also collaborates with the Regional Government to meet the needs of affected residents such as food and medicine. In addition, Pertamina also provided masks to keep implementing health protocols.

"Pertamina in this case provides items such as masks and hand sanitizers and others. We received assistance from the Ministry of Social Affairs in the form of 600 packets of ready-to-eat food, 300 packages of children's food, blankets, mattresses and others," said Ramadhan.