Cengkareng Residents Suffer Breathing Difficulties as Plastic Warehouse Fire Remains Unextinguished After Five Days

Residents in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, continue to experience breathing difficulties as a plastic warehouse fire has not been fully extinguished five days after it began on Friday afternoon, 22 May 2026. Sefti (37), one of the residents, said her asthma had flared up due to the air pollution surrounding her home for days. ‘Coincidentally I have asthma, so I could really feel it; it flared up last night. It happened again tonight. The worst part is today, it’s very bad,’ she told Kompas.com at the scene on Friday.

‘I was indoors last night, sleeping; when I woke up in the room it smelled of smoke and dust. Like a volcanic ash cloud. Even though the space was closed, windows and doors were not opened, I used the air conditioner, but the smell still entered.’

In addition to triggering breathing difficulties, the drifting ash also makes residents’ eyes sting. This has forced people to wear masks when going about daily activities outside their homes.

Similar complaints were raised by Aldi (28), of RT 02 RW 04 Kapuk. He said the air quality worsened, particularly while rescuers were dismantling rubble using heavy equipment, which rekindled black smoke.

‘If you say it’s disruptive, it’s actually quite disruptive, especially for our health. Breathing isn’t comfortable; sometimes it feels like we’re getting overheated, and it sticks in the throat,’ he said. The air around the site is so dirty that black dust even collects in the nostrils from inhaling too much smoke.

The ongoing fumes cause him to cough when serving customers. ‘Alhamdulillah it’s still normal (for selling), but the main thing is to wear a mask. I tend to cough now and then, I’m old anyway,’ said Titi, another stallholder. She also faced difficulties selling food and feared contamination from the smoke, so she stores all food away from the stall front, inside a closed cabinet.