Forest And Land Fires In Kubu Raya Expand, Officers Struggle To Put Out The Fire

Illustration of forest fires (ANTARA)

KubU RAYA - The hot weather in the past two weeks has triggered forest and land fires (karhutla) in the Kubu Raya Regency, West Kalimantan (Kalbar). At least the hotspots were observed in three sub-districts, namely the Kakap River, Sungai Raya and Rasau Jaya until Thursday night.

Head of the West Kalimantan BPBD Information Task Force Daniel said the fire burned quite a wide area of land in the Sekunder C area, Rasau Jaya District. He explained that the burning land had a peat structure that was overgrown with shrubs.

"An effort has been made to extinguish the fire by BPBD to join the TNI and Polri, as well as other groups," said Daniel, Friday, July 26.

However, the fire that burned the land has not been completely extinguished. Officers are still struggling to extinguish the fire. "Therefore, today the team returned to the location to extinguish it," he explained.

According to Daniel, this land fire has the potential to spread. This is because of the hot weather conditions and strong winds. "It is feared that this could spread to several residential areas or locations," he said.

Officers in the field are now focusing on securing the spread of fire so as not to penetrate the residential complex. "We secure residents' houses that are threatened to be approached by fire," he said.

Daniel also appealed to the entire community not to burn land carelessly, including burning garbage that must be under strict supervision.