Antara, Jakarta – A total of 150 firefighters and 35 fire trucks were deployed to extinguish the huge blaze burning a paint factory in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, at 14:15 on Monday, May 8, 2023.
The Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency said that officers had difficulty finding water sources around the location. "We have managed to localize the hotspots," said the agency's head Satriadi Gunawan in North Jakarta as quoted from Antara.
Satriadi explained that it took almost three hours to put out the raging blaze because of the flammable chemical paint, and the officers had difficulty finding a source of water. The officers also used a variety of special extinguishing equipment such as foam sprayers.
During the extinguishing efforts, a firefighter was injured and rushed to the hospital.
The agency has not been able to estimate the loss or conclude the cause of the fire. Satriadi said the burned area was estimated at 2,100 square meters.
As of Monday evening, half of the building was still on fire given the fragile construction of buildings due to fires.
Two tankers filled with thinner were also secured at the location. If exposed to fire, the thinner tanks could trigger an explosion.
According to a factory employee, the fire started on the second floor of the building or the office, not on the ground floor which is the paint production room. The employee saw thick smoke rising from the ceiling on the second floor of the building at around 2 p.m.
Seeing the smoke, all employees rushed out to save themselves. An employee S tried to put out the fire with a light fire extinguisher (APAR). When the fire got bigger, S immediately contacted the North Jakarta Fire Agency. According to him, no employees were there when he escaped the building.