Joint Patrol Apparatus Press Forest Fire Potential On Mount Guntur

Archives. Police extinguished land and forest fires in Guntur Mountain, Garut Regency, Wednesday (21/8/2024). (ANTARA/HO-Polres Garut)

Joint officers carried out patrols to prevent forest land fires in Guntur Mountain, Tarogong Kaler District, Garut Regency, West Java (West Java). The Head of the Tarogong Kaler Sector Police, Iptu Sona Rahadian Amus, said that the potential for fires due to the dry season is still high on Mount Guntur. "We continue to carry out patrols and direct monitoring of the location of land fires in the Guntur forest area to ensure there is no fire," he said in Garut, Thursday, August 22, which was confiscated by Antara. He explained that the joint apparatus involved in this patrol included forest police from the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), the TNI, and officers from local government agencies. The joint patrol, he said, was to check the burned area, and also ensure that no other land area was burned, if there was smoke or fire, a fire would be extinguished immediately so as not to spread. "If there is a fire visible, or smoke is observed, we immediately move to extinguish it so that it does not spread to burn forest land," he said. He said the burning forest land was a conservation area on the slopes of Mount Guntur, precisely in the Cilopang Block, Ranbangno Village, Tarogong Kaler District with a land area of about 200 hectares. The location of the fire, he said, was in the middle of the forest and far from residential areas, so residents were safe from the threat of fire danger. "Residential settlements are safe because the location of the fire is far away," he said.

He added that the patrol also appealed to the public not to carelessly burn garbage around forest areas, and also to prohibit climbing. "We also sterilize the hiking trails, there should be no climbing to avoid danger in the event of forest fires," he said. Previously, it was known that a forest land fire on Mount Guntur occurred Monday, August 19 evening, then joint officers extinguished it, until now they are still trying to extinguish it if smoke or fire is observed.