Riau Receives Helicopter Assistance From BNPB To Tackle Karhutla

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION VIA ANTARA

PEKANBARU - The Riau Provincial Government received an additional helicopter from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) to maximize the prevention of forest and land fires (karhutla).

Head of the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Riau Province, M Edy Afrizal said that with the addition of helicopter assistance, Riau had 3 helicopters and 1 aircraft on standby.

"As many as 3 helicopters, the details are 1 unit from BNPB, 1 unit for patrol and 1 helicopter assistance from KLHK," he said, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, June 28.

He said that currently 2 of the 8 helicopters in Riau are on standby prepared by BNPB for Riau and so far the Riau Provincial Government has not asked for additional helicopter assistance, considering the forest fire situation is still under control.

Edy Afrizal said that the handling of a number of previously burned lands had been successfully controlled so that a policy was taken to withdraw all personnel from the field.

"Nevertheless, our officers remain on standby, and patrol activities are still carried out. If later there are reports or hotspots are monitored through the Lancang Kuning dashboard, we are ready to go down," said Edy.