Watch an Oil Refinery Explode After Possibly Getting Hit by Lightning

The explosion itself could be heard from over 100 miles away.

Oil Refinery Fire

An Indonesian oil refinery on the island of Java caught on fire early Monday, ballooning into a massive column of fire and smoke.

The incident seriously injured six people and forced 1,000 nearby residents from their homes, The New York Times reports.

Drone footage uploaded to Reddit shows the true extent of the blaze. The smoke blows so thick that it totally obscures the morning sky behind it.

The blast was so massive, in fact, that it shattered nearby homes. The explosion itself could be heard from over 100 miles away.

 

Still Investigating

Authorities believe the conflagration may have been started by a lightning strike.

"The cause of the fire is not known with certainty, but at the time of the incident, it was raining heavily accompanied by lightning," state-owned oil refinery company Pertamina said in a statement, as reported by the Times.

Pertamina was also involved in a massive offshore crude oil spill in 2019.

According to the company, today's blaze largely involved storage tanks, and won't significantly affect refinery operations.

READ MORE: Oil Refinery in Indonesia Catches Fire, Prompting an Evacuation [The New York Times]