Due To Land Cleaning, The Protected Forest Area In Serage Village, Central Lombok Caught Fire

The protected forest area in Serage Village, Southwest Praya District, Central Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Province, experienced fire in the 2024 dry season.

"The cause of the land fire is suspected to have occurred by clearing land by the community by burning," said Danramil 1620-4/West Praya Captain Inf Wage Rudolf in Central Lombok, Antara, Friday, September 13.

Babinsa Koramil 1620-04/Praya Barat together with the community struggled to extinguish the fire from the forest land fire that occurred in Sulung Hamlet, Serage Village.

"What caught fire were branches and dry leaves, so the fire spread to the 1 hectare hectare protected forest area," he said.

Babinsa together with the community moved quickly to extinguish the fire with makeshift tools when they learned of the hotspots appearing in the area.

"We immediately moved quickly to coordinate with the village government, local officials and residents to immediately extinguish the fire with makeshift tools so as not to spread," he said.

The fire incident was discovered thanks to information from one of the residents of Sulung Hamlet who was cleaning the garden behind his house, saw a puff of thick black smoke and then the resident screamed for help.

At the time of the incident, some residents of Sulung Hamlet were resting, when they heard the witness' screams for help while shouting for fire. Local people and babinsa came to help extinguish the fire using makeshift equipment.

"The fire can be extinguished by the community, assisted by Babinsa together with related officers and firefighters who arrive on time at the fire site," he said.

In addition, his party will continue to increase patrols and monitoring to prevent further fires and provide advice as a precautionary measure so that similar incidents do not happen again.

"We hope that the public will be increasingly aware of the importance of protecting the environment and not carrying out land burning activities that can endanger many parties," he said.