BMKG Detection Of Five Karhutla Hotspots In East Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan

Illustration of forest fires that occurred in Gambit District, Banjar Regency, South Kalimantan on October 22, 2019. (Between/Bayu Pratama S)

JAKARTA - The Balikpapan Station Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) detected five hotspots in East Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan, so that related parties were advised to take action.

"Hotspots both due to forest and land fires (Karhutla) and other reasons are still happening, although it is still the rainy season," said the Coordinator for Data and Information at the Class I Meteorological Station Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman (SAMS) Sepinggan BMKG Balikpapan Diyan Novrida in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan as reported by Antara, Sunday.

There are still hot spots in East Kalimantan because certain areas experience days without rain in a few days, namely in certain areas it does not rain every day, there is the potential for a number of areas to experience a few days of heat.

As a result of the heat for several days and consecutively, he continued, this then caused leaves and branches to dry up so that it was prone to fires.

For this reason, he appealed to all elements of society to help protect the environment so that land and forest fires do not occur, including in residential areas.

All parties, he continued, were advised not to throw cigarette butts carelessly, not to burn while managing the land, and to avoid various other activities that could trigger fires.

Meanwhile, the five hotspots in East Kutai Regency were detected today from 01.00 to 16.00 WITA, which is a hot spot spread over five locations in Kaubun District.

The distribution of the five hotspots was immediately informed to related parties, especially to the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), both at the East Kalimantan Province and local districts in order to receive further treatment.

"The details of the five hotspots are at adjacent coordinates, namely at coordinates 0.0118 Longitude and 0.0001 Lintang, all of which have a middle level of trust," said Diyan.