Minister: KMP Bontang Express II caught fire in Ketapang while 'off'

Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi has stated that the passenger motor vessel KMP Bontang Express II caught fire in the ship parking area near Ketapang Port, Banyuwangi, East Java, while it was not in operation or ‘off’.

Dudy explained that the fire was suspected to have been caused by an electrical short circuit originating from a fan, based on initial witness accounts.

“The ship was off, (suspected) electrical short circuit, caused by a fan,” the Minister said when met in Jakarta on Friday evening.

According to him, the fire was successfully extinguished within approximately 30 minutes after being detected by the ship’s crew, who immediately carried out initial handling of the incident.

The Minister said that at the time of the incident, the detection system was immediately activated and functioning.

“The fire was extinguished in 30 minutes. The fire was successfully put out by the ship’s crew. The incident was reported to have occurred in the nursing room. The sprinklers were on and functioning,” he said.

Dudy emphasised that he has asked the Directorate General of Sea Transportation to continue improving supervision so that ship fire incidents do not recur in the future.

He said that preliminary information regarding the cause of the fire is still based on statements from the ship’s crew, while further investigation is still being carried out to determine the primary cause of the incident.

Director General of Sea Transportation at the Ministry of Transportation, Muhammad Masyhud, confirmed that there were no fatalities in the KMP Bontang Express II fire incident.

Masyhud explained that the ship was empty at the time of the incident, so there were no passengers or crew members who became victims of the fire.

“There were no fatalities in the incident. No casualties, the ship was empty. But the ship was not attached to the dock,” said Masyhud.