At least 17 people were killed when a fire broke out on Friday at a fuel storage station operated by Indonesia's state energy company Pertamina (PERTM.UL) in the capital Jakarta, an official at the city's main firefighting unit said, according to Reuters.
Officials say the fire spread from the Plumpang fuel station, owned by state energy company Pertamina, to the nearby neighborhood of Tanah Merah in North Jakarta.
Video from Indonesian broadcasters showed hundreds of people in the densely populated neighborhood running in panic, while firefighters worked to put out the flames.
Officials said two of the fatalities were children and said 50 other residents had been hospitalized with injuries, some with severe burns. They said more than 600 people had been evacuated since the fire broke out around 8 p.m. local time.
At Koja Hospital, Iis Iswanti told VOA that her nephew was in the ICU suffering injuries from the fire.
“My nephew was 90% burned. If only he had not walked towards that depot, he might have survived. But he was walking towards that area when there was a fire and then some expositions,” she said.
MNA/PR
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