Burning West Bandung Sarimukti TPA Activities Stopped, Residents Will Be Relocated

West Bandung Regent Hengky Kurniawan (center) together with the Forkopimda ranks in the coordination meeting for the Sarimukti TPA fire prevention at the Cimahi Police Headquarters, Thursday (24/8/2023). (ANTARA/HO West Bandung Regency Government)

The West Bandung Regency Government took the first step by stopping all activities and relocating residents around the TPASarimukti location after issuing a Disaster Emergency Response status.

"We have also established health posts, BPBD, Firefighters and public kitchens to meet the needs of officers on duty at the Sarimukti TPA," said West Bandung Regent Hengky Kurniawan as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, August 24.

Hengky hopes that the West Java Provincial Government and the central government will immediately intervene to help overcome this fire.

The reason is, until now firefighters from both West Bandung Regency and neighboring cities and districts have not succeeded in extinguishing the fire which is increasingly widespread due to dry weather factors.

Hengky also hopes that there will be assistance from other parties so that they can immediately extinguish this fire, such as the Pertamina Depot which has a special fire extinguisher.

"We hope that the Pertamina Padalarang Depot and other parties can help the Regional Government to immediately extinguish this fire. We will immediately send a letter requesting assistance," he said.

Because he had not been extinguished, Hengky admitted that he was worried that this fire could cause the Sarimukti TPA to explode as happened at TPA Leuwigajah a dozen years ago.

"So it is also necessary to study from an academic team so that the best solution can be obtained, because it seems that they need a special chemical liquid to solve the problem of this fire," he said.

For now, Hengky stated that the KBB Government's priority is the handling of the health of the surrounding community, considering that the smoke produced from the fire is very dangerous for health.

"The local government will also add an ambulance fleet that will stand by around the location, so that it will be able to immediately mobilize the community to the nearest hospital if it has more impact on public health," he said.