South Sumatra OKU Kembali Karhutla, Si Jago Merah Lahap 20 Hektare

Illustration of forest and land fire extinguishing. (Between-Edo Purnama)

SOUTH SUMATRA - Another forest and land fires (karhutla) occurred in Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU) Regency, South Sumatra (Sumsel). This time, it scorched an area of 20 hectares (ha) on Tuesday, October 17 afternoon.

"The forest and land fires incident occurred this afternoon at around 12.00 WIB," said Manager of the OKU Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Gunalfi in Baturaja, Tuesday, October 17, as reported by Antara.

The agricultural land that caught fire was located in Batukuning Village, West Baturaja District, which is right near Taman Sakura.

According to information in the field, it was stated that the fire allegedly came from cigarette butts that were dumped by residents carelessly, triggering forest and land fires.

In extinguishing the fire, his party deployed dozens of personnel and one water tanker to the location of the fire. The blackout process experienced a slight problem, because road access to the fire site was difficult for four-wheeled vehicles to pass.

"Not to mention the strong winds made the fire quickly spread and spread to the surrounding land, making it difficult to extinguish," he said.

However, he continued, thanks to the hard work of the Karhutla Task Force Team which struggled in the field, the fire was finally extinguished at around 16.00 WIB.

"Currently, our officers are still in the field to carry out the cooling process to anticipate the fire points resurfaced," he said.

On this occasion, Gunalfi again reminded the public to be wiser and more careful by not throwing cigarette butts in any place, especially on dry land that is flammable.

"Because almost the average forest and land fires incident in OKU Regency was caused by the negligence of the people who threw cigarette butts carelessly," he said.