Fire engulfs containers at port
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A fire burned through at least 27 containers on Wednesday at the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) at Tanjung Priok seaport, North Jakarta.
More than 10 fire trucks were deployed to put out the fire that started at around 10:30 a.m. (photo above) The fire was finally extinguished about four hours later.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, and the terminal management declined to make any comment on the incident.
Eyewitnesses claimed that chemical materials stored in one of the containers could have started the blaze.
"We haven't been able to open the containers yet, because they are still too hot. We still have no clue as to what kind of chemicals, and from which container, might have caused the fire," said an officer with the North Jakarta Police, as quoted by detik.com.
The fire began at Blok K II, near the port, where newly arrived containers are housed. The containers that burned had not yet been checked, the officer said.
"We'll check all cargo and shipping documents to find out the containers' owners and their port of origin," he said.
Nurul Amalia, a public relations officer at JICT, told The Jakarta Post the company would not release any information on the fire until next Monday, as they were waiting for its president director to return from an overseas trip.
The Harbor Police and the North Jakarta fire brigade also declined to share any information.
JICT was established in April 1999 as a joint venture between Hutchison Port Holdings of Hong Kong and PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II to operate Container Terminals 1 and 2 at Tanjung Priok seaport.
JICT spans 100 hectares of coastal land and handles more than 1.5 million 20-foot containers annually, making it the largest container terminal in the country.
In a separate incident on Wednesday morning, another fire at Jl. Juanda 1C in Gambir, Central Jakarta, razed dozens of homes.
The fire was extinguished after a 90-minute joint effort by residents and 10 fire trucks.
Antara quoted an eyewitness who said the fire presumably started when a resident, Hutomo, tried to burn a pile of garbage.
No one was killed in the incident, and the now homeless residents are being accommodated at a nearby subdistrict compound.