Probe continues to search out out the reason for the fireplace, however the vitality firm says a pipe leak was detected earlier than the fireplace.

Residents have searched by means of the stays of their charred houses after a gas storage depot fireplace in Jakarta killed at the very least 17 folks, together with two youngsters.

The fireplace, which began at roughly 8pm (01:00 GMT) on Friday from a gas pipe at Pertamina’s Plumpang gas storage depot in capital Jakarta, rapidly unfold to close by homes and despatched residents within the densely populated space right into a panic.

Sixty folks had been injured, with many severely burned, whereas a whole bunch extra residing in residential areas close to the depot needed to be evacuated.

The North Jakarta Crimson Cross stated 342 folks had been evacuated and that 4 tents had been arrange for the displaced.

Three folks had been nonetheless lacking after the blaze, with Indonesian officers the following day calling for an audit of “all gas amenities and infrastructures” within the nation.

Vice President Ma’ruf Amin visited the scene on Saturday and confirmed 17 folks had been killed and 60 extra injured.

He prompt the depot needs to be moved away from residential neighbourhoods.

“I hope this depot may be relocated … so it is going to be safer and this space will likely be rearranged so it meets the necessities of a correct neighbourhood within the capital,” he informed reporters.

Footage broadcast on Friday evening confirmed folks screaming and fleeing by means of slender roads with an inferno lighting up the sky behind them.

A fireball might be seen throughout the skyline of north Jakarta with sirens wailing within the background.

Abdul Syukur, who additionally lives close by, informed Kompas TV that residents stated they might odor the gas about half-hour earlier than the fireplace.

“The odor was so robust there have been folks throwing up and a few practically fainted,” he stated.

One other witness, Swastono Aji, informed AFP information company that the odor “was so robust that we might hardly breathe”.

“We had been leaving this space once we abruptly heard a really loud explosion.”

‘Mini apocalypse’

“It was like a bomb, like a mini apocalypse. It was unimaginable,” witness Jamilul Asror, 45, informed AFP, calling on authorities to relocate residents farther away.

Nationwide Police chief Listyo Sigit, talking on the web site, stated at the very least three folks had been nonetheless lacking.

Prime officers have referred to as for a probe into the fireplace’s trigger and an audit of the nation’s vitality amenities after a number of current blazes.

“After we had a number of fires … it’s clear that we should audit all gas amenities and infrastructures, particularly tanks and refineries,” Sugeng Suparwoto, head of the parliament’s vitality fee, informed native broadcaster Metro TV on Saturday.

In 2021, a large blaze broke out on the Balongan refinery in West Java, additionally owned by Pertamina.

That very same depot noticed fires in 2009 and once more in 2014 – when the flames unfold to 40 homes close by. No casualties had been reported in both of these circumstances.

The morning after the blaze, houses stacked up towards the barbed-wire fences of the Pertamina facility had been gutted and blackened, with rows of automobiles burned out.