Karhutla Dominated the Last 24 Hours of Disaster, BNPB Warned of Wide Risk

JAKARTA - Forest and land fires (karhutla) have become the most dominant disaster in the last 24 hours in a number of regions in Indonesia. The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) recorded several karhutla incidents in Kalimantan to South Kalimantan in the period from Sunday, April 26 to Monday, April 27 morning.

A number of fire points appeared with different burned land areas. Although all of them were successfully extinguished, the weather conditions and characteristics of the land made the handling process in the field not always easy.

"From the results of data collection, forest and land fires (karhutla) dominated during that period," said Head of the BNPB Disaster Data, Information, and Communication Center, Abdul Muhari, in his statement, Monday, April 27.

The first forest fire occurred in West Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan, precisely in Empas Village, Melak District, on Sunday afternoon. An area of 1.5 hectares was burned before it was finally extinguished on the same day without casualties.

Still in the same province, a fire also hit Senaken Village, Tanah Grogot District, Paser Regency. The fire burned about one hectare of land.

The joint team from the BPBD, the Paser Regency Fire Department, Sekawan Rescue and the fire-conscious community, had difficulty while trying to put out the fire due to the condition of the bush, dry reeds and strong winds.

Meanwhile, the forest fire in Banjarbaru City, South Kalimantan, which occurred on Saturday, April 25, was only extinguished a day later. The affected land in Sungai Tiung Village, Cempaka District, reached 4.3 hectares.

In the midst of this trend, BNPB reminded that the potential for fires is still high in a number of areas, especially with flammable land conditions.

"Based on monitoring the level of ease of burning in the upper layer of the soil surface on Monday, several areas in North Sumatra, Papua and South Papua are in the easy to very easy to burn category," he said.

Abdul Muhari emphasized that prevention efforts were the key to preventing fires from spreading and causing greater impacts. In addition, community involvement is considered crucial in controlling karhutla, especially in vulnerable areas.

"Therefore, the active participation of residents to maintain forests and carry out patrols with village officials is an important factor in controlling and handling forest fires in Indonesia," he said.