Fire guts perfume factory

JAKARTA (JP): Fire gutted a house-cum-perfume factory on Jl. Taman Jati Petamburan in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, on Monday afternoon.

At least 10 fire trucks were deployed to the area. At 4:30 p.m., the firefighters, with the help of local residents, managed to put out the fire, which burned half of the L-shaped house and all of the eight perfume refinery tanks, along with 10 kilograms of eaglewood oil.

"We suffered a loss of US$70,000 with the burning of the oil and some Rp 200 million ($28,570) for the house," the house owner, Syech Djindan, 58, said.

Djindan said nine people lived in the house, including his mother and six employees of the perfume factory. A Nigerian couple also rented a room at the back of the house. Police said nobody was hurt in the incident.

Ahmad Mukhlisin, 30, one of the workers, said the fire started after a refinery tank blew up.

"I'm not sure what happened. I've been told by Nita, who was in charge of monitoring the tanks, that the pressure gauge suddenly showed an above-normal rate," Ahmad said.

He was taken to Tanah Abang Police Station for questioning along with three other employees.

Residents said they heard two blasts before the fire started. One said he saw flames in the gutter in front of the house before the explosion occurred.

"Someone probably threw a cigarette butt into the puddle of oil around the house," he said. (01)