At least 37 fishing vessels anchored at Benoa Port in Denpasar, Bali, caught fire on Monday.

The fire reportedly started from a boat that was berthed at the port around 1:45 a.m. local time and quickly engulfed dozens of other fishing vessels.

No casualties were reported in the incident, but flames shooting into the night sky could be seen from the nearby Mandara toll road.

The Bali Police’s preliminary investigation found that the fire had been caused by negligence.

“We have questioned a number of boat crews. But we will conduct further investigations to determine whether this was an accidental or intentional blaze,” Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Petrus Reinhard Golose said on Monday.

Firefighters were still trying to put out the blaze on Monday afternoon, with more than 11 fire trucks from Denpasar and Badung fire and rescue agencies dispatched to the fishing port, which is located some 8 kilometers from the famous tourist destination of Kuta.

But various problems have hindered their efforts.

“One problem lies in the water supply for fire fighting. Pelindo [state-owned port management company PT Pelindo III, which manages Benoa Port] should add more fire hydrants in the area,” said Ida Bagus Yoga from Denpasar Disaster Mitigation Agency’s (BPBD) emergency unit as quoted by kompas.com.

The Bali Police also dispatched several water cannon units in response to the lack of water supply.

Dwi Agus Siswa Putra from the Indonesian Tuna Longline Association’s (ATLI) Bali chapter said the lack of open space at the fishing port had allowed the fire to spread easily.

It was not the first time fire has razed boats docking at Benoa Port, raising questions over the port’s fire safety measures.

At least two incidents occurred at Benoa Port last year, including a fire involving three fishing boats.

All the three fishing boats belonging to a private company were destroyed by a blaze that had started on one afternoon in January 2017.

Firefighters at that time tried to isolate the fire by cutting the mooring lines of the docked boats in an attempt to separate them. No fatalities were reported in the fire, which took approximately three hours to extinguish.

In May 2017, a boat owned by the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry caught fire at Benoa. An electric short circuit was believed to have caused the incident, which started at around midnight.

Benoa Port authority head Dwiyanto said on Monday that they actually had fire hydrants located in other parts of the Benoa Port complex.

“Unfortunately, the hydrants are located too far from the fishing port. So, they could not be accessed easily from the fishing port,” Dwiyanto said.

Dwiyanto instead highlighted the problem of overcrowding at the fishing port, which was caused by confiscated illegal fishing boats being moored at the port.

There were roughly 400 illegal fishing boats docked in the area under the custody of the ministry, taking about 30 percent of the docks that were allocated for registered fishing vessels, Dwiyanto said.

Following the massive fire on Monday, Dwiyanto said his office would soon invite all stakeholders to an evaluation meeting.

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