Karhutla Lalap 72 Hectare Lahan Di Aceh Selatan, BPBD: Baru Padam 45 Percent

JAKARTA - The Aceh Disaster Management Agency (BPBA) said the joint team was still fighting against fires from forest and land fires (karhutla) in Bakongan District, South Aceh Regency, which continues to spread until now to reach 72 hectares.

"As of the seventh day, approximately 72 hectares of burned land in South Aceh have been burned, and about 45 percent have been successfully extinguished," said BPBA Chief Executive T Nara Setia in his report in Banda Aceh, Tuesday.

He said the teams involved in the effort to extinguish the forest and land fires were from the South Aceh BPBD, South Aceh Damkar, Bakongan Sub-district Head, TNI/Polri, TNGL Resort Bakongan, and the community.

"For the infrastructure used, namely two units of two-wheeled trail vehicles, one four-wheeled unit, a waterax machine unit, a floating pump machine, a BPBD portable pump machine, and a TNGL waterax engine," he said.

In addition, in an effort to extinguish forest and land fires in South Aceh, the Sumatra Regional Forest Fire Control Center of the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry has also deployed a team of Manggala Agni.

The Manggala Agni team that was deployed was from the Sumatra Operations Area I/Sibolangit. Manggala Agni is a brigade for controlling forest and land fires formed by the Ministry of Forestry.

T Nara Setia explained that the forest and land fires in South Aceh had spread to three villages in Bakongan District, namely Gampong Ujong Mangki, Padang Beurahan, and Ujung Padang.

This land fire in South Aceh has occurred since August 19 and is still ongoing today. The cause itself is not yet known, and is still in the process of being investigated.

"Alhamdulillah, there were no affected victims, refugees, and fatalities from this disaster," he said.

T Nara stated that the South Aceh BPBD together are still trying to extinguish the fire. His party has also carried out fire mapping using drones, as well as collaborating with all task forces for handling it.

In the process of extinguishing this, he continued, officers were still having problems with the lack of water sources, then the direction of strong winds accelerated the spread of fire.