Petugas Berjibaku Put Out The Palm Oil Fire That Expanded In Pessel, West Sumatra

Oil palm land fire on the South Coast. (ANTARA/BPBD Pessel)

A total of 11 Manggala Agni personnel from the Center for Climate Change Control and Forestry for the Sumatra Region were dispatched to help extinguish the fire on the people's oil palm land in Silaut, Pesisir Selatan (Pessel), West Sumatra.

"Today the team from the PPIKHL Center in Sumatra arrived in West Sumatra and immediately went down to help extinguish the fire," said Head of the West Sumatra Forestry Service, Yozarwardi, in Padang, quoted by ANTARA, Friday, May 26.

He said the process of extinguishing the burning oil palm land, since Tuesday (23/5), had problems. Apart from inadequate equipment, the location is also far from the road.

The communication network at the location was also poor so that coordination between officers in the field and officers outside was hampered.

Moreover, the oil palm plantation land is also a peatland which is relatively more difficult to extinguish.

"The fire on the land that had previously been successfully extinguished suddenly turned on again," he said.

To control the fire, his party has communicated with the Center for Climate Change Control and Forest and Land Fires (Karhutla) in the Sumatra region in Palembang to ask for personnel assistance.

"Today the aid team has arrived and will go directly to the location on the South Coast," he said.

From the temporary report of the Forestry Service Karhutla Task Force West Sumatra, land fires continued to spread until Friday (26/5). It is estimated that the area of burned land reaches hundreds of hectares.

Silaut is the southernmost sub-district of Pesisir Selatan Regency which is directly adjacent to Bengkulu Province.

The distance to Silaut District from the capital city of Painan Regency is around 186 Kilometers. Meanwhile, with the provincial capital, Padang, about 264 Kilometers.

The area is part of the Independent Integrated City (KTM) of the Lunang-Silaut transmigration area. Most of the oil palm plantation areas on the South Coast are in the area