Water Bombs Still Rely on Jatiwaringin Landfill Fire Extinguishing

JAKARTA - The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) is still relying on water spraying operations from the air using a water bombing helicopter to extinguish fires at the Jatiwaringin Waste Final Processing Site (TPA), Tangerang Regency, Banten.

Head of the BNPB Disaster Data, Information and Communication Center, Abdul Muhari, said that the aerial operation was strengthened because the fire in the garbage pile had not been completely extinguished.

"As of Wednesday (1/7) afternoon, the fire has not been extinguished and it was identified that two new fire points appeared on the north side of the landfill. This condition requires integrated handling, including strengthening aerial operations," he said as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, July 2.

Abdul explained that the deployment of the air fleet was the mainstay, as well as fulfilling the efforts of land irrigation because the potential for fire expansion was still very high due to flammable waste materials and gusts of wind.

To optimize the fire, BNPB has activated two water bombing helicopters which were flown directly from the air base at Pondok Cabe Airport.

One helicopter was reported to have successfully carried out one sorti of air bombing operations on Wednesday afternoon, while another additional fleet has now been fully mobilized and ready to operate.

Both helicopters are scheduled to return to carry out massive watering throughout Thursday with a focus on the target area of the new fire spread to support the acceleration of the wetting and cooling of the land.

Based on the latest data from BNPB, it was found that the fire that hit since Tuesday (30/6) afternoon was recorded to have burned an area of seven hectares from the total area of the Jatiwaringin landfill which reached 33 hectares.

According to Abdul, the impact of the thick smoke from the fire also triggered social problems, where the number of affected residents who were forced to evacuate increased to 50 people. The evacuation was prepared centrally at the Tanjakan Mekar Village Hall.

In that way, he said, BNPB ensures that the basic logistical needs for dozens of residents at the evacuation post have so far been met well by the Tangerang Regency Government (Pemkab).