Four Days On: Why Is the Plastic Warehouse Fire in West Jakarta Difficult to Put Out?

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The firefighting operation to extinguish a plastic warehouse fire in the Kapuk area, Cengkareng, West Jakarta has yet to be completed despite entering its fourth day on Thursday (21 May 2026).

Head of Operations (Kasie Ops) of the Suku Dinas Penanggulangan Kebakaran dan Penyelamatan (Sudin Gulkarmat) Jakarta Barat, Syaiful Kahfi, said the firefighting efforts were hampered by plastic material buried under rubble from collapsed walls and roof of the warehouse.

‘The difficulty is because the goods are buried under the walls, so we can’t spray. If it’s buried like this it’s already quite heavy, a challenge. Because there are many items too,’ he said when contacted by telephone on Thursday.

As a result, the fire, which had been localised, often flares up again and produces thick black smoke from beneath the rubble.

To map hot spots blocked by the rubble, firefighters regularly monitor the site from the air.

‘We always monitor from above using a drone to monitor the fire points; there are still flames hidden behind that rubble,’ Syaiful said.

Given water cannot penetrate the debris, firefighters eventually adopted a strategy of breaking it apart using heavy equipment or an excavator.

‘That’s why we have to use the beko, lift it, disassemble it with the beko, then spray. Inside there is still fire, so because it’s crushed the fire isn’t being hit by water,’ he explained.

The excavator has been in use at the firefighting site since Wednesday around 12:00 WIB.

However, the operation using the beko was halted at night and only resumed this morning.

By Thursday morning, Sudin Gulkarmat Jakarta Barat was keeping 18 units with 90 personnel on the scene.

When asked about the target completion date of the firefighting operation which has dragged on for days, Syaiful admitted he could not provide certainty.

‘I can’t predict, I can’t predict. Yesterday I predicted it would be finished by the afternoon, but it couldn’t, there are still many smoke points; therefore we continue the process with maximal efforts using heavy equipment as well,’ he said.