Entering Kemarau, Thousands Of Hectares In 11 Subdistricts Of Purwakarta Burned

Illustration of Officers extinguishing land fires (ANTARA)

PURWAKARTA - The Fire and Rescue Service of Purwakarta Regency, West Java, said that thousands of hectares of forest, plantation and land areas spread across 11 sub-districts in the area are prone to forest and land fires (karhutla) during the dry season.

Head of the Purwakarta Fire and Rescue Agency, Juddy Herdiana, said that the level of vulnerability refers to the fire incident in forest, plantation and land areas last year.

In 2023, fires that hit forest, plantation and land areas in Purwakarta reached 243 times, with a burned area of 239.156 hectares.

He said the burned areas included 11 sub-districts, with details in Bungursari District there were 39 fires in forest, plantation and land areas. Then in Jatiluhur, Sukatani and Purwakarta sub-districts 33 forest and land fires occurred in 2023, respectively.

Furthermore, in Darang District, there were 22 forest and land fires, 19 times Babakanciao sub-district, 16 times Campaka, 14 times Wanayasa, 13 times Plered, 11 times Kiarapedes and 10 fires in Pasawahan sub-district.

"Most of the fires occurred during the peak of the dry season," said Juddy, quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, June 27.

For the forest area in Purwakarta, based on data from the Purwakarta Forest Management Unit (KPH) according to the Decree of the Directors of Perum Perhutani Number: 903/KPTS/DIR/2013 dated August 30, 2013 concerning Forest Area Distribution at KPH Purwakarta is 60,609.83 hectares.

Due to this condition, Juddy said that his party would be aware of the threat of fires that could potentially occur during the peak of the dry season, which this year is expected to occur in June-August.

"Most of the personnel have been alerted, including alerting all operational equipment for extinguishing forest and land fires. We will prepare all our potential to overcome possible disasters during the peak of the dry season," he said.

He said the ranks of the Fire and Rescue Service had prepared anticipatory steps to minimize the bad effects that could potentially occur during the peak of the dry season, including the potential for forest fires.

"We continue to closely monitor the forest areas in all of Purwakarta. We will monitor the monitoring through three Fire Extinguishing Area Posts (Damkar Regionals) located in Cikopo, Plered and Wanayasa Damkar Regional," said Juddy.

In addition to personnel, said Juddy, all the main fire fighting equipment has been prepared, including one command car, five fire engines, one for ambulances, four trail motorbikes for heavy terrain and other supporting equipment.