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Jakarta Post

No foul play in fuel depot blast: Police

Police said Tuesday a joint team investigating the fire that destroyed a gas tank at Pertamina’s Plumpang fuel depot, North Jakarta, found no indication of sabotage or terrorism

Dicky Christanto (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, January 21, 2009 Published on Jan. 21, 2009 Published on 2009-01-21T09:05:17+07:00

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Police said Tuesday a joint team investigating the fire that destroyed a gas tank at Pertamina’s Plumpang fuel depot, North Jakarta, found no indication of sabotage or terrorism.

The team, comprising police officers and investigators from state-owned oil company Pertamina as well as downstream oil and gas regulator BPH Migas, did not find any explosives residue at

the site.

“The team discovered no residue from explosives, which are often used by terrorists to attack a targeted object. So the team has come to the temporary conclusion that the signs [indicate that there were no] terrorist activities before during or after the explosions,” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira said.

An officer of the police’s antiterror unit, who was tasked with gathering evidence on the spot,

said he had found no suspicious evidence.

“It was a pure accident,” said the officer who spoke with the condition of anonymity.

Abubakar said the preliminary investigation revealed the fire had started because the depot’s pressure monitoring system had to failed to warn about a build up of pressure inside the storage tank when the tank was being filled.

“That is why the team comes to the conclusion that it was caused by human and equipment error. But, we are still conducting the rest of the investigation to find out what really happened,” he said.

The fire, which broke out at 9 p.m. on Sunday and burned for around nine hours, consumed the 3,000 kiloliters of Premium gasoline in the storage tank. It is estimated the total damage will cost Pertamina Rp 15 billion.

Abubakar said Tuesday that one person was found dead at the scene. Initial reports by the media declared there had been no fatalities in the incident.

“Up until this point we have been unable to identify the victim,” he said.

However, witnesses said the dead man was Zainudin, a security officer at the depot.

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