The fire that broke out in a tank in the Pertamina Cilacap refinery in Central Java last night was finally declared extinguished at 9:15am Sunday 14th November.
“Everything went out at 7:45am and we declared it safe at 9:15am,” said Director of PT Pertamina International Refinery (KPI) Djoko Priyono at a press conference.
Djoko noted that there were a number of extinguishing strategies used during the blaze. One of them was to insulate the burning tank with other tanks around it.
“We also did offensive fire fighting in Tank 36T102. With offensive fire fighting, the fire can be controlled and totally extinguished at 7:45 this morning,” he explained.
Pertamina’s President Director Nike Widyawati had confirmed that the fire was under control on Saturday 13th November at 11:05pm. At that time, the fire was extinguished and remained so for about 85 minutes. However, the foam then opened again and firefighting efforts continued.
“The conditions are completely safe with the burning of one tank that there is no shutdown and this doesn’t affect production. The stock conditions in the refinery tanks and in the pipes and gas stations are all safe,” he said.
He also guaranteed that the supply of fuel and liquefied petroleum gas would not be disrupted. He confirmed that there was no need to panic about supplies to petrol pumps because the incident does not affect production.
“The condition of the good stock in the tank and the stock at the gas station are all safe. We guarantee that all supplies are not disturbed, so there is no need to panic buy. We will conduct further evaluations and investigations. The first step is the safety of our colleagues and the local community,” he explained.