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Tanzil was paid just $6 a day to work in a fireworks factory which became an inferno
ABC Radio Australia - November 18, 2017
When we arrived at the Tangerang Regency General Hospital, Tanzil had just emerged from his sixth round of surgery on burns he suffered when a fire ripped through his place of work, a fireworks factory on the outskirts of Jakarta.
His burns are extensive – to his head, arms and back – and on this day the pain is too great to sustain and he struggles to cope. The Tangerang Regency General Hospital has no sophisticated burns unit, the treatment it can provide is basic at best.
Tanzil, a child worker who was paid the equivalent of $6 a day, and 12 other victims of the fire were brought here. Four have since died.
"My clothes, my back and my hair were burned. My back and my hands, which I used to climb a pillar, are the worst," he said. Tanzil's sobs filled the general ward as we spoke to the survivors.
The factory fire highlighted Indonesia's lack of protection for workers and the nation's substandard work safety laws. And now it is shining a light on its inadequate health system.
'I just ran, my clothes were burning but I kept running'
Anggi Aji Pangestu's, 18, wounds leak through the white bandages wrapped around much of his body. Barely any of his young frame was spared. "Fire, fire, they screamed," he recounted.
He too had worked for the fireworks company PT Panca Buana Cahaya Sukses for around $6 a day. "Most people ran inside to the warehouse, I ran outside. If I ran inside there was nowhere else to go," Anggi said.
The factory had only one entry and exit point at the front, where the fire started. Those workers who ran to the back were trapped. According to police, many of the bodies were found piled in the rear of building.
Anggi said he knew if he followed, he would die. He moved towards the flames instead. "I ran with instinct, I just ran, my clothes were burning but I kept running," he said.
His brother died in the fire, and Anggi's burns are so severe it's hard to see how he will fully recover with the treatment available to him.
The fire, first thought to be started by an electrical fault, was later determined to have been caused by a spark from a welding torch.
Factory operating in poor neighbourhood
Tangerang is a satellite city on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta. The fireworks factory had been operating for just a few months, in a poor neighbourhood where the labour was cheap and the children were easily exploited. Many of the victims were women and girls.
Widya, 20, was packing goods when the fire began. She recalled the terror as people began to run screaming for help. "It was so hot on my hands, my feet and my back," she said. "Someone threw in a ladder from outside, I immediately climbed a wall."
With no alternative exit, some workers were saved when locals broke down a wall. Others like Tanzil climbed to the roof and kicked their way out.
Whether the owner of the factory will be held truly accountable remains to be seen, but it's unlikely the tragedy will lead to any tightening of work place safety conditions in Indonesia.
Media coverage of the fire lasted for no more than a few days, but for the survivors the suffering could well last a lifetime.
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