Struck By Lightning, 29 Hectares Of Forest Land On Mount Pandemic, East Java Burned Out

MALANG - An area of 29 lands on Mount Panderman, Batu City, East Java caught fire on Thursday, November 23 night. This forest and land fires were triggered by a lightning strike just before the rain.

Head of BPBD Batu Agung Sedayu said the fire had been extinguished on Thursday, November 23, 2023 at around 16.00 WIB. However, his party is still vigilant because the wind has the potential to revive the fire.

Based on temporary data, the Batu City BPBD estimates that the area of land burned on the 2,045 mdpl mountain will reach 29 hectares at two points. The first point is located at 227 Blok Wakikan reaching 17 hectares and an area of 213 covering an area of 12 hectares of Bon Klerek Block.

Although Mount Panderman is also the habitat of a number of animals such as long-tailed monkeys to Javan eagles, his party has not received any reports of finding animal carcasses caused by the fire.

"It is possible that these animals have moved to other safer back areas," Agung said in his statement, Friday, November 24.

Agung explained that the vegetation that caught fire included cypress and weeds. It is also confirmed that there were no casualties in the fire. This is because the hotspots are far from the hiking trails and settlements.

According to Agung, the handling of fires could not run optimally due to steep terrain factors. The hotspots occur not on the hiking trail, but in the mountain ridge area which is dominated by cliff contours to cliffs.

"At night, visibility is very limited with the threat of a steep cliff and a ravine below it making manual blackouts difficult," he explained.

A total of about 50 joint personnel were deployed to extinguish the fire, consisting of the Batu City BPBD, Perhutani KPH Malang, Babinsa, Bhabinkamtibmas, LMDH, and volunteers. They extinguish the fire manually by shaking and making an iron (burning block).