2 Hectares Of Land In Aceh Besar Burned

The dry season resulted in forest and land fires (karhutla) which scorched about two hectares of land in the Gampong Data Makmur area, Blang Bintang District, Aceh Besar District.

"The last condition of the fire has been successfully extinguished," said Chief Executive of the Aceh Disaster Management Agency (BPBA) Ilyas as reported by ANTARA, Monday, June 12.

The land fire occurred at around 19.10 WIB. The burned area is about two hectares. The cause of the fire is still under investigation by officers.

The land in the hilly area belongs to Syamsuar (42). There were no casualties in the incident.

When receiving information from Karhutla, said Ilyas, the Aceh Besar BPBD immediately deployed two fire fighting units (Damkar) to the scene to extinguish the fire.

"BPBD Aceh Besar deployed two firefighters from the Sibreh Post and Durung Post to the scene," he said.

Previously, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) appealed to the people of Aceh to be aware of the potential for forest and land fires as a result of two climate change phenomena, namely El Nino and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) which resulted in drought in Indonesia.

"So forest and land fires in this period have more potential to occur, due to drought. Then also because of the increasing surface temperature, the land is flammable," said Head of BMKG Class I Meteorological Station Sultan Iskandar Muda (SIM) Nasrol Adil.

Especially, continued Nasrol, areas in the central part of Aceh such as Central Aceh Regency, Bener Meriah, Gayo Lues, Southeast Aceh, and other mountainous areas.

The hill or mountain foot area is very vulnerable to forest and land fires. For today and yesterday, our satellite has not been monitored for hot spots, but we still ask people not to clear land by burning," he said.