Death toll at Indonesia smelter fire rises to 18, operation halted

JAKARTA: The death toll from a fire at an Indonesian nickel smelter has risen over the weekend to 18 as of Tuesday (Dec 26) with dozens still being treated in hospital, local police said, while operations at the smelter remain suspended as authorities investigate the cause of the incident.

"The number of victims who died increased by five people, so in total 18 people have died," Morowali police chief Suprianto told AFP.

The accident happened on Saturday morning as workers did repairs on a furnace at a plant owned by PT Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel (ITSS) on Sulawesi Island, a unit of China's Tsingshan Holding Group.

The fire was extinguished later that day.

An initial probe showed the explosion happened when residual slag from the furnace, which was closed for maintenance, flowed out and came in contact with flammable materials around the location.

ITSS is a tenant in the industrial park, which is also majority-owned by Tsingshan along with local partner Bintang Delapan. The island of Sulawesi is a hub for the mineral-rich country's production of nickel, a base metal used for electric vehicle batteries and stainless steel.

Indonesia, the world's biggest nickel producer, has banned unprocessed nickel ore exports while promoting major investments in smelting and processing, but several fatal accidents have hit the sector in recent years.

President Joko Widodo, while identifying nickel processing as a priority for economic development, has called for improved safety and enhanced monitoring of environmental standards.

Central Sulawesi police spokesperson Djoko Wienartono said on Tuesday that the victims included eight foreign workers, and that the police are still investigating the cause of the fire. China's foreign ministry said four Chinese were among the initial 13 confirmed dead.

A spokesperson for the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park where the plant is located, Dedy Kurniawan, said on Tuesday that operations would remain suspended during the investigation.

In January, two workers including a Chinese national were killed at a nickel smelting plant in the same industrial park after a riot broke out during a protest over safety conditions and pay.

In June a fire at the same plant left one dead and six others injured, in another incident that has caused concern about safety at facilities funded and operated by Chinese companies.