Land At Mount Sadai Belitung TPA Burns

TPA di Belitung kebakaran. (ANTARA/Kasmono-Apriliansyah)

BANGKA BELITUNG - More than one hectare of land in the final disposal site (TPA) of Gunung Sadai, Juru Seberang Village, Tanjungpandan District, Belitung Regency, Bangka Belitung Islands, was burned to the ground.

The Chief Executive of the Belitung BPBD, Agus Supriadi, said that the land fire incident in the TPA area occurred at 14.25 WIB and the fire grew again at night around 19.00 WIB.

"We received a report from a resident to the personal telephone number of one of the Belitung BPBD firefighters saying that a fire had occurred at the Gunung Sadai TPA," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, September 4.

After receiving the report, a team from the Fire Department and TRC of the Belitung BPBD immediately rushed to the scene to extinguish the fire.

"We went straight to the Gunung Sadai TPA location to extinguish the fire," he said.

He explained that upon arriving at the location, the team immediately sprayed water into the hotspots to extinguish the fire.

In addition, his party sprayed in other garbage pile areas so that the fire did not spread.

"The pile of garbage is dominated by plastic waste, so we have to try hard to prevent the fire from spreading or grab other piles of garbage," he said.

Agus explained that the exact cause of the fire was not yet known.

However, according to a scavenger at the TPA location, he heard of an explosion accompanied by sparks.

"As a result of reports of the scavengers there was an explosion and then a fire broke out, it was possible that from the garbage that could not withstand the heat due to the hot temperature, there was an explosion and fire," he said.

Currently, the fire that scorched the Gunung Sadai Belitung TPA area has been extinguished.

However, his party remains on standby because it is feared that a fire will emerge.

"At 16.15 WIB we managed to extinguish the fire and the conditions were declared green, but they were still on standby, and the fire started again at around 19.00 WIB," he said.

He appealed to the public to be aware of the occurrence of forest and land fires in the midst of the current hot weather conditions.

"We remind you to always increase awareness of forest and land fires in the midst of the current hot weather conditions," he said.