Plastic warehouse fire in Kapuk, West Jakarta, cooling under way after 19 hours

A warehouse in Kapuk, Cengkareng, West Jakarta, continued to burn on Tuesday morning (19 May 2026), more than 19 hours after the blaze initially broke out on Monday afternoon (18 May 2026). Firefighters are now concentrating on cooling the area. Black smoke was still seen rising from inside the warehouse into 09:45 WIB. ‘There are a lot of goods stacked, so we are still working on this. Because the fire involves plastics, spraying water does not reach down to the source,’ Syaiful Kahfi told Kompas.com on Tuesday morning (19 May 2026). To overcome this, the fire department is coordinating with the building owner to bring in heavy equipment. An excavator (referred to as ‘beko’) is needed to dismantle the burnt material so that spraying can reach the heat source. ‘We are coordinating with the building owner to prepare a beko (excavator), then dismantle first before spraying. If not, it will drag on; tomorrow you’ll call us, you’ll call us,’ Syaiful said. Although there are still hotspots and thick smoke, Syaiful assured that the fire source has been localised. ‘The localisation is not moving; around 00:00 WIB we localised it; the fire wasn’t spreading. The fire, at 02:00 WIB, was still red but not moving, staying in that area,’ he explained. Water alone is not enough to extinguish a fire from a pile of plastic goods. A total of 27 fire engines and 135 personnel were deployed to the scene. ‘Now some have gone home because some of the units came from Central Jakarta as well,’ added Syaiful. Two firefighters were injured after being sprayed in the eye by a nozzle.