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Pertamina ignored warnings before Balongan fire: Ombudsman
“That smell should have been an early warning but it was unattended, even ignored,” said Ombudsman investigator Hery Susanto on Wednesday.
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he Indonesian Ombudsman has slammed state-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina for ignoring locals’ complaints over a pungent smell likened to a fuel leak in the hours before the company’s Balongan refinery in West Java was engulfed in flames on March 29.
The Ombudsman said on Wednesday that ignoring the complaints was a misstep and that heeding the warning might have reduced the damage caused in the incident that ended up displacing nearly 900 residents and killing two.
“That smell should have been an early warning but it was unattended, even ignored,” Ombudsman investigator Hery Susanto told reporters in a virtual press conference.
The Ombudsman’s finding shifts more responsibility on Pertamina for the fire instead of on natural causes, namely the stormy weather with lightning in the area during the time of the incident.
However, the Ombudsman also acknowledged that it was still waiting for the National Police Criminal Investigation Directorate (Bareskrim Polri) and Pertamina to complete official investigations into the fire’s cause. The investigation is slated for completion in three months.
Read also: Balongan refinery fire: Pertamina shuts down facility, authorities evacuate hundreds
Hery reported that locals approached refinery staff as early as 9:30 p.m. on March 28, to complain about the smell but were ignored by security. Outraged, the locals began protesting and hurling items at Pertamina’s facility until Balongan Police dispersed the crowd at 10:00 p.m.
Then, a small explosion was heard at 11:45 p.m. followed by a bigger explosion at 00:45 a.m. on March 29. The fire emanated from gasoline tanker T301G and spread to three surrounding tankers.
Pertamina and local authorities were quick to respond by distributing food and medical aid and by evacuating affected residents to temporary shelters. The company and local authorities managed to put out the fire two days later on March 31.
Read also: Firefighters extinguish days-long West Java oil refinery inferno
The Ombudsman reported that the incident had displaced 895 residents from four villages as of March 30, destroyed at least 1,313 homes and claimed two lives: one by the direct impact of the blast and the other by shock.
Pertamina corporate secretary Ifki Sukarya said the company had investigated the area suspected of producing the smell, namely the oil tanker area near the Wisma Jati neighborhood, which is the nearest residential area to tanker T301G.
“In parallel, Pertamina distributed face masks to residents. Right before the incident, we evacuated Wisma Jati residents to the highway to distance them from the smell,” he told The Jakarta Post via text message on Thursday.
The fire damaged the four gasoline tankers and scorched 2 hectares of land. Two of the tankers were empty at the time but the other two contained 25,328 kiloliters of fuel. The remaining 67 tankers in the facility were unaffected.
Both Pertamina and the Ombudsman assured that the fire would not disrupt fuel supply to Greater Jakarta and parts of West Java as the main customers of the Balongan refinery.
Furthermore, the Indramayu regent has formed a task force headed by the local Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPDB) to coordinate help for the residents including collecting data on damage, rebuilding homes and distributing aid for the displaced residents.
