The blaze, which reportedly started at around 4:30pm on Monday afternoon, engulfed several chemical tanks at the PT Petro Widodo premises in the Gresik regency of East Java. Petro Widodo is a subsidiary of PT Petrokimia Gresiki.

Petrokimia is one of Indonesia's biggest petrochemical groups and is mostly government-owned.

The blaze prompted the state electricity company to cut power to the area while the company shut down a pipeline from Surabaya that supplied gas to the industrial complex.

Petrokimia Gresik, 500 meters away from the site of the blaze, is a major producer of fertilisers. It also produces products such as ammonia, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.