Indonesia fuel depot fire kills 19

Indonesian rescuers and firefighters on Sunday searched for three people who were still missing under the rubble of charred houses and buildings, after a large fire spread from a fuel storage depot in the capital and killed at least 19 people. The Plumpang fuel storage station, operated by state-run oil and gas company Pertamina, is near a densely populated area in the Tanah Merah neighbourhood in North Jakarta. It supplies 25 per cent of Indonesia’s fuel needs. At least 260 firefighters and 52 fire engines extinguished the blaze just before midnight on Friday after it tore through the neighbourhood for more than two hours, fire officials said. Footage showed hundreds of people running in panic as thick plumes of black smoke and orange flames filled the sky. National police chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo said a preliminary investigation showed the fire was caused by a technical problem involving excess pressure as the depot received fuel from Pertamina’s Balongan Refinery in West Java province. ”It was found that a fire occurred during a filling of Pertamax fuel,” Listyo told a news conference late on Saturday, referring to a type of fuel oil produced by Pertamina.