Forest Fire, Mount Arjuno-Welirang Climbing Line Temporarily Closed

Mount Arjuno Welirang can be seen from the Pasuruan Regency, East Java. (ANTARA)

MALANG - Technical Management Unit (UPT) of the Grand Forest Park (Tahura) Raden Soerjo stated that the climb of Mount Arjuno-Welirang in the East Java region was closed indefinitely due to forest fires.

The head of Tahura Raden Soerjo, Ahmad Wahyudi, said that the closure of the climb was to ensure that conditions on Mount Arjuno-Welirang were safe, considering that the blackout process had been successfully carried out.

"The fire occurred yesterday, now it has been extinguished. The location is in the Gumandar area, entering the Pasuruan area," Wahyudi said as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, May 26.

Wahyudi explained that at this time his party was still unable to confirm how much area the burned area was. He also could not confirm what caused the fire that hit one of the points in the Mount Arjuno area.

According to him, currently, Tahura Raden Soerjo officers are still recovering from physical conditions after extinguishing the fire. The process of extinguishing the fire was carried out by a number of personnel until Friday (26/5) at approximately 04.00 WIB.

"Areal terbakar belum bisa memastikan, karena masih recoveri setelah putemen. Mereka turun dulu, biasanya nanti kita melakukan penelusuran asal dari api itu. Kemudian berapa luas yang terdampak," ujarnya.

At the time of the fire, he continued, there were no climbers at the top of the mountain who had a height of 3,339 meters above sea level (masl). This is because the Arjuno climb is planned to be closed on 27-28 May 2023.

"Incidentally, on 27-28 May it will be closed. So, on that day all climbers had dropped, and no one was at the top. It was safe," he said.

He added that the closure of the Mount Arjuno-Welirang climb is currently being carried out until an undetermined time to anticipate the potential for other fires. Considering that until now there is still the potential for fires due to gusts of wind.

"We are closed because it is feared that the (fire) process will not be completed. It is feared that there will be strong winds and trigger another fire," he said.

In October 2019, a large fire hit the Mount Arjuno area and caused damage to an area of 3,000 hectares. At that time, it was a long forest fire incident due to the strong wind conditions and made it difficult to extinguish the fire.

Mount Arjuno is the second-highest mountain in East Java, with a height of 3,339 meters above sea level (masl). Meanwhile, Mount Welirang has an altitude of 3,156 meters above sea level.

Mount Arjuno, located next to Mount Welirang, includes Mount Kembar I, and Mount Kembar II. The peak of Mount Arjuno is located in the same back as the top of Mount Welirang, and is better known as the Arjuno-Welirang complex.

For the record, Mount Arjuno was designated as a Biosphere Reserve by The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2015. Thus, the restoration of the Mount Arjuno ecosystem needs to be done immediately.