Telaga oil forbidden to burn (aceh berduka)

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - At least 18 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a major fire in an illegal oil lake in Indonesia, authorities said last night.

The oil spill triggered a major fire at around 1.30am (Indonesian time) overnight in a placement area in Kampung Peureulak, Aceh region on the island of Sumatra.

Images from the scene show a fire rising as high as 70 meters into the air.

"The number of victims amounted to 18 people and 41 prey injured. We still can not escort the blazing fires (at midnight overnight).

"We do not know there are other prey because we can not approach the fire location," said the head of the local disaster management agency.

The initial casualty rate was 10 but increased after the eight prey treated at the hospital died.

There is a group of residents digging up a long lake but suddenly, a huge fire looms and explosions prevail, "said jurucakap Indonesian policy, Setyo Wasisto.

The members of the bomba are at the scene with the help of the state oil company Pertamina.

According to the policy, the prey is gathering oil around the lake when the fire is in force. Some of them also found smoking.

The number of spills and fire stakes is still uncertain.

East Aceh places many small oil-guard operations controlled unlawfully by the local population.

Although the ruling party says the operation violates the law, the deadly fire is not a foreign matter in Indonesia, a vast archipelagic state inhabited by more than 260 million people.

In October 2017, as many as 47 people were killed in a fire extinguisher refinery outside Jakarta, when dozens of injured prey when a balcony in the Indonesian Stock Exchange building collapsed in January this year.