Teletubbies Hill Forest and Land Fires at Bromo Has Been Extinguished, East Java BPBD Focuses on Wetting

SURABAYA - Forest and land fires (karhutala) in the Teletubbies Hill Savana Block, Mount Bromo, East Java, have been extinguished. Previously, the forest and land fires had spread to Malang and Lumajang Regencies.

The Chief Executive of the East Java Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Gatot Soebroto, said that the forest and land fires had begun to subside in the last two days. After the water bombing was deployed intensively to the location of the fire hotspots at the forest and land fire locations.

"Now we can only see some smoke from embers stored on the ground and burning trees," said Gatot, confirmed.

Gatot together with the Head of Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) Hendro Widjanarko directly led the blackout and wetting operations at a number of points on Teletubbies Hill. Namely in the Krajan area, Gedong area, Bukit Plentong and the Jemplang Watu Gede area.

"We are ensuring that the fire and smoke on Mount Bromo are completely extinguished. There is no longer any fire, and now we are focused on eradicating it," he said.

According to Gatot, the wetting was not only carried out by land, it was also extinguished by air, through water bombing. This air operation used a Nationa Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Superpuma PK-DAN helicopter with a capacity of 4,000 liters.

"Water bombing was carried out 46 times with a water capacity of 184,000 liters. This operation targeted the Keciri area in the Probolinggo area, Kayangan Hill, Plentong Hill and Jemplang Watu Gede which are part of the Malang area," he said.