Blast at Cilegon steel plant injures 7 people

JAKARTA. 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.

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

“The incident took place at 1 p.m. at the steel-making plant,” she told The Jakarta Post over the phone.

“There’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. 

“The 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.

“Five of them are lightly injured, have been treated at the clinic and have been released. They sustained shock and minor injuries,” she said.

“However, 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.

“The 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.

“We 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.

“The 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.

“We’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.

“Apparently, there was water leakage [through a roof], which affected the converter.” (Tassia Sipahutar)