Indonesian officials find multiple violations in deadly factory blaze
TANGERANG
(Indonesia): Police investigating a fire that killed nearly 50 people at a fireworks factory on the outskirts of Jakarta late last month have found multiple safety violations at the plant, which was crammed with three times the number of workers allowed.
One of Indonesia’s worst industrial disasters, the Oct. 26 blaze in the congested industrial suburb of Tangerang, has cast a new spotlight on lax safety standards in Indonesia, where rules are often ignored or weakly enforced.
Reuters interviews with police investigators, government officials and survivors show that at the time of the fire, the factory was overcrowded, had only one exit, and a single mid-sized fire extinguisher even though it had reported having four on site.
The building housed more than 4,000 kg of combustible materials in various locations, which, police say, made it all too easy for the fire to rip through the 2,600 square metre factory within minutes, killing 49 workers and injuring dozens more.
Survivors told Reuters they had not had any emergency training or drills, and were not familiar with evacuation routes. Police spokesman Argo Yuwono said there was no indication anyone had tried to use the fire extinguisher.
“It was total panic and the fire was quickly out of control,” Yuwono said. “The workers had zero training in how to respond in an emergency or how to use a fire extinguisher.”
Police have detained the owner and operations manager of the company on suspicion of negligence leading to death. They face at least five years in prison if found guilty.
A representative for the parent company of PT Panca Buana Cahaya Sukses said the firm would pay for all survivors’ medical treatment, but declined comment on the legal case.
On the day of the fire, 103 workers had filed into the dusty and stuffy factory. Many lived in small houses nearby that are dotted among the neighbourhood’s factory complexes, and sent their children to school just a block away from the fireworks workshop.
Workers, paid an average of 40,000 rupiah ($2.96) a day, fanned out across the factory - to storage facilities for raw materials and finished fireworks, a machine room where the fireworks were produced, and packaging stations. Some milled around in the workers’ canteen near the front of the building.
Police say that soon after the day’s work got underway, at around 9.20 am, sparks from unauthorised welding work landed on tall stacks of unpackaged fireworks, causing at least two explosions that shook neighbouring buildings and could be heard miles away.
Survivors say that within minutes the front area and only exit of the warehouse was engulfed in fire and thick black smoke, trapping the workers and sending them scrambling towards the back of the building. Police found 44 bodies piled up in a back corner of the building, all charred beyond recognition. Clothes and identifying accessories had melted. Bodies were identified using dental records and DNA samples from families. Uwang, a 36-yearold woman hired to package fireworks, said she and four others survived by jumping into a small water tank. Full story @ timesofoman.com/world