Residents flee over blast from plant

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

An explosion and fire engulfed a petrochemical plant in Gresik, East Java on Thursday night, the second incident at the plant this year, forcing local residents to flee in panic.

There were no reports of casualties or injuries after the accident at PT Petro Widada, just two months after a fire engulfed the plant on Feb. 2, killing two people and injuring more than 50 others.

Thursday's fire took place at about 11:30 p.m. after a loud explosion which jolted locals from their beds. Residents said the blast sounded like a bomb.

"We immediately fled out of our homes and we saw a fire in a chimney on the east side of the factory," Layla Sa'adah, a local resident, said on Friday.

She said she and her neighbors were still getting over the February explosion and fire at the plant that produces maleic anhydride and pethalic andhydride.

"We are afraid that (this explosion) could be like what happened before," Layla said.

On Friday, local people staged a protest against Petro Widada over the incident, saying the plant threatened their lives.

Protest coordinator Arik S. Wartono said the explosion was proof PT Petro Widada had resumed operations in spite of being ordered to stay shut until it met certain conditions.

"(The plant needs) a permit from the Ministry of Industry and Trade and an environmental audit that involves local residents. These two conditions had not yet been met when there was a new explosion last night," he said on Friday.

The accident caused major damage to several iron buildings inside the plant's 20-hectare complex and burned several motorcycles, cars and fuel tanks. Grasses and trees near the scene had dried out from the intense heat.

Petro Widada spokesman M. Yunus said the explosion was due to a damaged safety pipe installed in one of chimneys.

"The breaking of the safety pipe caused an explosion and fire," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday. "But it was not dangerous," he said.

Yunus said the accident caused thousands of U.S. dollars in losses to his company, a subsidiary of PT Petrokimia Gresik.

The Thursday fire was the third to take place in the company after the first accident in 1996 that killed one worker and injured 10 others.

Petrokimia is one of Indonesia's biggest petrochemical groups and is mostly government-owned.