Massive fire engulfs Indonesian oil refinery

JAKARTA: A massive blaze broke out on Monday at one of Indonesia’s biggest oil refineries after a huge explosion turned the sprawling complex into a raging inferno.

Firefighters battled to contain the fire at the Balongan refinery in West Java, operated by state oil company Pertamina, as towering plumes of black smoke rose into the sky. “There was a very loud sound and I thought it was a hurricane,” one local resident, Rumaji, told AFP.

“I looked outside and the fire was huge. The flames were shooting into the sky.”At least five people were seriously injured and about 1,000 local residents were evacuated from the scene after the fire broke out early Monday morning at a storage tank and then spread to other containers.The local disaster agency said one person had died from a heart attack after the explosion.