The Mount Papandayan Climbing Line Fire Is Closed, Tourist Locations Are Still Opened

A number of joint officers are preparing to extinguish the fire at the Papandayan lGunung, Garut, West Java, Tuesday (24/10/2023). (ANTARA/HO-Polsek Cisurupan)

GARUT - The police have temporarily closed the hiking trail for the public to Mount Papandayan. The mountain in the Garut area, West Java (West Java) is still being engulfed by the red rooster with the potential to endanger climbers.

"The temporary climb is still closed due to security considerations," said Cisurupan Police Chief Iptu Asep Saepudin in Garut, Tuesday, October 24, confiscated by Antara.

He said that the forest land in the Tegal Alun Block, the Gunung Papandayan conservation area, was reported to be on fire, Sunday, October 22, and then extinguished, until Tuesday afternoon, the fire was still happening.

The fire is still happening on forest land, he said, so the hiking trails for both the general public and climbers are temporarily closed, while tourist areas located far from fires are still open to tourists.

"Tourism is still open," he said.

He conveyed the reason the hiking trails were closed to facilitate extinguishing efforts and also prevent the spread of flames that could endanger visitors.

"Just anticipate worrying that the fire will widen," said Asep.

He said the location of the forest fire was quite far from the entrance gate to the Gunung Papangdayan Nature Tourism Park about 3 hours of travel time.

Joint officers, he said, are still ready to extinguish the fire that is still occurring at two points in forest areas manually, such as blocking so that the fire does not continue to spread.

"The fire has narrowed, there are only two more points, now the joint team will extinguish it again," he said.

Regarding the cause of the fire, he said, it is not yet known because the fire extinguishing process is still focused, while the burned area is estimated to be approximately 100 hectares.

"While we haven't gotten there yet, we are still investigating and focusing first on the blackout," said Asep.

Forest fires in the conservation area have previously occurred in the Tegal Alun Block in 2015.