Smelter blast injures 13, damages 63 home

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Sidoarjo, East Java

At least 13 people were injured, two of them seriously, when a strong explosion rocked a metal smelter in Sidoarjo industrial area, East Java, on Wednesday.

The explosion took place at about 5:45 a.m. and sparked a fire that swept through metal smelter PT Ispatindo in Sidoarjo District.

All the injured victims are rushed to the Siti Khotijah Taman Sepanjang Hospital and all medical fees were covered by the company.

Lubena, a staff member at the hospital, said that all the injured victims who were treated were employees of the factory.

Sidoarjo Police Precinct chief Sr. Comr. Ronny Sompy said that the strong explosion was allegedly sparked by the collapse of the factory's main furnace.

"We still don't know exactly the cause of the furnace's collapse; the investigation is still underway," he said, adding the police are still questioning 10 employees who were on duty at the time of the blast.

Locals living near the factory, blamed the local administration and the factory's poor management for the explosion for not taking steps to prevent such incidents from happening.

They said that residents had complained about noise and environmental pollution caused by the factory both to the management and the local administration but their complaints were not heeded.

"It is the second incident after a minor explosion happened months ago. Besides the explosion, the factory has also polluted wells and the air and makes an intolerable level of noise almost every day. This means that the management has ignored local residents' complaints and the local administration did not monitor the factory's operation," said Abdul Rohkim, chief of a neighborhood in Kedung Sari village located near the factory.

He cited that the management had paid only Rp 25,000 per family in compensation for the environmental pollution.

Rohkim said that residents have demanded that the factory repair the houses damaged in the explosion and that they planned to file a lawsuit against the factory over the explosion and the environmental pollution.

He added that the explosion damaged 63 houses and two cars belonging to residents.

The incident occurred only two months after the explosion that rocked chemical factory PT Petrowidada, in Gresik industrial zone in the middle of January. The fire that caused a strong explosion is the largest recorded to have hit a chemical factory in Indonesia. Three employees were killed and fifty-eight survivors of the fire received treatment in hospitals, many with severe chemical burns.

PT Petrowidada, which produces the raw plastic materials phthalic anhydride (PA) and maleic anhydride (MA), is a subsidiary of petrochemical company PT Petrokimia, one of Indonesia's biggest petrochemical groups.

PT Ispatindo's personnel manager Dedy Kurniawan expressed regret over the incident, saying that the company was still calculating the material losses.

"We have decided to give compensation to the locals affected by the explosion and to cover the medication costs of the injured victims," he said.

He said further that the management has also decided to suspend operations for three weeks until all damaged facilities were repaired.

The factory produces 80 tons of steel per month.