Train blaze stirs panic in Cepu<\/p>\n
Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post\/Cepu<\/p>\n
Evening prayers had just finished. A group of people stayed on at
\nthe small mosque, some praying and others reciting from the
\nKoran. Suddenly, a loud crash was heard, breaking the tranquility
\nof the small town, Cepu, on the border of East Java and Central
\nJava.<\/p>\n
The loud explosion stunned local residents. Sarmi, 50, a
\nstreet vendor selling fuel and cigarettes, ran in panic. She
\nrushed into her kiosk in search of her grandson whom she assigned
\nto keep the kiosk while she was away. Sarmi was worried as the
\nkiosk was just located few meters away from a railway crossing
\nwhere a train carrying gasoline and kerosene caught fire on
\nFriday evening after hitting an Isuzu Panther.<\/p>\n
She was relieved that after a two-hour search, she finally
\nspotted her nine-year-old grandson in a large field, some 300
\nmeters from the site of the explosion.<\/p>\n
Thousands of local residents had already gathered at the
\norder of police to avoid possible fatalities caused by the fire.
\nThe fire itself was enormous, razing four train cars containing
\n147,420 kiloliters of fuel.<\/p>\n
The fire not only razed the train cars, but also spread to
\nresidential houses near the railway crossing.<\/p>\n
\"We were scared. The flames were as high as a coconut palm
\nand threatened to sweep into our neighborhood,\" said Siti, a
\nsenior citizen whose restaurant was gutted by fire. She recounted
\nthat she was washing clothes in her house next to the restaurant
\nwhen the loud explosion was heard. Her first response was to
\nignore it, but she then rushed out after hearing her neighbors
\nscreaming and crying out.<\/p>\n
Most women and children sought refuge in the open field while
\nsome 500 men helped put out the fire by any means available.<\/p>\n
As of Saturday, nine buildings had been razed by the fire,
\nincluding Siti's restaurant and a Bank Mandiri's branch office
\nbuilding. Smoke still billowed from the ruined houses on the left
\nand right side of the burned train cars. Leaves on trees 50
\nmeters away were wilted from the intense hear.<\/p>\n
A marketer with the local unit of state oil and gas company PT
\nPertamina Heppy Wulansari said the company was calculating the
\nlosses. \"We have alerted Pertamina and police personnel that any
\nlosses claims by local residents could be directed to PT
\nPertamina,\" said Heppy.<\/p>\n
Police are now questioning six witnesses, including train
\ndriver Sujitno, 54, and Suripno, 54, the driver of the Isuzu
\nPanther pick-up. No fatalities or injuries were reported in the
\nincident.<\/p>\n
The train with 19 cars was carrying fuel from Rawalo Depot in
\nYogyakarta and was its way to a fuel depot in Cepu, Central Java.
\nThe train pulling five cars of gasoline and four of kerosene hit
\nthe Isuzu Panther some 3 kilometers before it reached the depot.<\/p>",
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