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Blast at Cilegon steel plant injures 7 people

At least two workers were badly injured on Monday after a blast at steel maker PT Krakatau Posco in Cilegon, Banten, which may have been caused by a water leakage

Tassia Sipahutar (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, December 16, 2014 Published on Dec. 16, 2014 Published on 2014-12-16T09:40:23+07:00

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t least two workers were badly injured on Monday after a blast at steel maker PT Krakatau Posco in Cilegon, Banten, which may have been caused by a water leakage.

Krakatau Posco corporate secretary Christiawaty Ferania Kaseger said the blast took place at the steel-making plant, which processes liquid steel.

'€œThe incident took place at 1 p.m. at the steel-making plant,'€ she told The Jakarta Post over the phone.

'€œThere'€™s a converter inside the plant. The processed steel is in liquid form and has to be purified inside the converter. Apparently, there was water leakage [through a roof], which affected the converter,'€ she said.

'€œThe leak may have been because of the rainy season. We will find out.'€

According to Christiawaty, the damage was limited to the steel-making plant'€™s roof and some of its wall. The equipment was not damaged.

Christiawaty said seven people were injured.

'€œFive of them are lightly injured, have been treated at the clinic and have been released. They sustained shock and minor injuries,'€ she said.

'€œHowever, two workers are badly burned and are at Krakatau Hospital and Pertamina Central Hospital,'€ she added.

The company had scheduled maintenance for all its facilities in December. The site is a joint venture of state-owned steel maker PT Krakatau Steel and South Korea-based steel giant Posco.

'€œThe maintenance was scheduled for Wednesday. Repairing the damaged roof and wall only requires a day but we must wait until the investigation is completed,'€ said Christiawaty.

'€œWe will temporarily stop production tomorrow [on Tuesday]. We have not yet calculated the cost,'€ she said.

Meanwhile, Cilegon Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Defrian Donimando said the explosion at the plant took place at about 1:30 p.m. on Monday.

'€œThe blast was quite loud,'€ he told kompas.com over the phone.

He added that the police could not yet get close to the blast location inside the compound as the temperature was still too high.

'€œWe'€™re still waiting for the company'€™s engineering team to conduct an investigation of the scene. The temperature is still high,'€ he said, adding that so far, there were no fatalities.

'€œApparently, there was water leakage [through a roof], which affected the converter.'€

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