10 Days Of Fire The Mount Arjuno Area Has Not Been Extinguished, The Fire Has Even Expanded

Malang Police personnel tried to extinguish the fire that burned one of the areas in the Mount Arjuno area, in the Singosari District, Malang Regency, East Java, Sunday (27/8/2023). (ANTARA)

The forest and land fires (karhutla) that have hit the Mount Arjuno area for the past 10 days have not yet been extinguished. In fact, the spread of hotspots has actually spread to the Batu City area and also Mojokerto. The fire has occurred since August 26, 2023.

Previously, the fire had burned the slopes of Mount Arjuno in the Pasuruan Regency area which reached more than 800 hectares. Meanwhile, the land burned in the Malang Regency area reaches 1,244 hectares. Now, the hotspots are starting to spread to the Mojokerto area and Batu City.

Head of BPBD Batu City Agung Sedayu confirmed that the fire had spread into the slopes of Mount Arjuno, the Batu City area since Friday (1/9/2023). So far, the Batu City BPBD has extinguished the fire at 18 coordinate points as of Monday (4/9/2023).

"Until now, the fire is still visible spread to the Batu City area. Our officers are still in the field," said Agung, Tuesday, September 5.

In addition to deploying officers to extinguish the manual, a blackout has also been carried out by deploying a water bombing fleet since last Saturday. In total, the water bombing helicopter unit has brought 13,000 liters of water. However, the spread of the fire still cannot be tamed.

Therefore, the Batu City BPBD has raised the current emergency alert status of forest and land fires to become an emergency response status. Until now, his party is still coordinating with BNPB, East Java BPBD, and Abd Saleh Air Base to increase the intensity of water bombing.

According to Agung, the spread of fire to the Batu City area was influenced by strong winds and dry vegetation due to the long dry season. As a result of this fire, vegetation was burned down, such as mountain spruce, weeds, and shrubs.

It is suspected that this fire was triggered by illegal hunting activities that burned land to lure animals out of their hiding places.

The manager of the East Java BPBD Pusdalops Dino Andalanto, said that the water bombing method was important and the intensity was added. Currently, the burned land continues to increase to more than 800 hectares in Pasuruan Regency.

"It is feared that this fire will continue to spread. Therefore, we need water bombings immediately," he said.

In addition, the team also carried out a method of making fuel barriers to prevent fires from spreading to other areas. There are a total of about 250 joint personnel.