Train blaze stirs panic in Cepu
Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post/Cepu
Evening prayers had just finished. A group of people stayed on at the small mosque, some praying and others reciting from the Koran. Suddenly, a loud crash was heard, breaking the tranquility of the small town, Cepu, on the border of East Java and Central Java.
The loud explosion stunned local residents. Sarmi, 50, a street vendor selling fuel and cigarettes, ran in panic. She rushed into her kiosk in search of her grandson whom she assigned to keep the kiosk while she was away. Sarmi was worried as the kiosk was just located few meters away from a railway crossing where a train carrying gasoline and kerosene caught fire on Friday evening after hitting an Isuzu Panther.
She was relieved that after a two-hour search, she finally spotted her nine-year-old grandson in a large field, some 300 meters from the site of the explosion.
Thousands of local residents had already gathered at the order of police to avoid possible fatalities caused by the fire. The fire itself was enormous, razing four train cars containing 147,420 kiloliters of fuel.
The fire not only razed the train cars, but also spread to residential houses near the railway crossing.
"We were scared. The flames were as high as a coconut palm and threatened to sweep into our neighborhood," said Siti, a senior citizen whose restaurant was gutted by fire. She recounted that she was washing clothes in her house next to the restaurant when the loud explosion was heard. Her first response was to ignore it, but she then rushed out after hearing her neighbors screaming and crying out.
Most women and children sought refuge in the open field while some 500 men helped put out the fire by any means available.
As of Saturday, nine buildings had been razed by the fire, including Siti's restaurant and a Bank Mandiri's branch office building. Smoke still billowed from the ruined houses on the left and right side of the burned train cars. Leaves on trees 50 meters away were wilted from the intense hear.
A marketer with the local unit of state oil and gas company PT Pertamina Heppy Wulansari said the company was calculating the losses. "We have alerted Pertamina and police personnel that any losses claims by local residents could be directed to PT Pertamina," said Heppy.
Police are now questioning six witnesses, including train driver Sujitno, 54, and Suripno, 54, the driver of the Isuzu Panther pick-up. No fatalities or injuries were reported in the incident.
The train with 19 cars was carrying fuel from Rawalo Depot in Yogyakarta and was its way to a fuel depot in Cepu, Central Java. The train pulling five cars of gasoline and four of kerosene hit the Isuzu Panther some 3 kilometers before it reached the depot.