Minister Trenggono Promises To Employ ABK Cilacap Fire Victims On Fishing Vessels

Joint officers extinguish a fire that hit a number of fishing boats at Batere Pier and Wijayapura Pier, Cilacap, Central Java, Tuesday (3/5/2022) night. (Antara/Basarnas Cilacap)

JAKARTA - Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono through his special assistant, Doni Ismanto, confirmed that the government had recorded the crew members (ABK) who were victims of the fire incident on dozens of ships in Cilacap.

According to him, as many as 547 crew members were affected by this incident. While one other person suffered burns and is being treated at the Cilacap Hospital.

"The team in the field has recorded the crew and will provide assistance to ease the burden of the disaster. In the future, these crew members can be channeled to work on fishing vessels that will operate with a measured fishing policy scheme," he said in an official statement quoted on Saturday, May 7th.

According to Doni, this effort is also a real step in an effort to continue to develop the fishing port in Cilacap considering that the addition of ship units occurs every year.

"The fishing port pool at the Cilacap Ocean Fishery Port (PPS) is already full, so there are ships mooring elsewhere. We will immediately facilitate this by involving various parties,” he said.

As previously reported, there was a ship fire accident on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 which scorched 41 units of active fishing vessels and 13 vessels that did not have active fishing vessel crews. From the preliminary investigation, the loss was estimated at Rp130 billion.

Meanwhile, from the information received in the field, the fire is thought to have started from an explosion at KM. Pas Mantap 02 belongs to Edy Saputra who at that time was carrying out repairs and washing the ship's dynamo.

"We continue to urge ship repairs not to be carried out in the dock pool. We will continue to increase surveillance at the fishing port to prevent similar incidents from happening again in the future," concluded Doni.