15 Hectares Of Land In Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra Is On Fire

VIA PHOTO. AMONG

PALEMBANG - 15 hectares of land in the Rambutan River area, North Inderalaya District, Ogan Ilir Regency, South Sumatra, caught fire.

The Head of the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Ogan Ilir Regency, Ardha Munir, said that until now the fire was still burning and a number of personnel from related agencies were still putting out the fire in the no-man's land.

"The fire began to be monitored at around 15:00 WIB, so far it has not been extinguished," he said, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, July 28.

The dry weather conditions and strong winds caused the fire to quickly spread to the mineral land (not peat land).

Efforts cannot be made through watering from the air using water bombing helicopters because the fire occurred in the afternoon, so that the practical extinguishing can only be carried out by task force personnel from the ground.

"Luckily, there is still water in the reservoir around the location that can be used for watering," said Munir.

Munir revealed that at this time he and the forest and land fires task force (Satgas) team, which consisted of Manggala Agni, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the TNI-Polri, and the local community were still trying to extinguish the blaze.

"So far, it can still be overcome, only the lack of vision makes it a bit hampering the team's work to extinguish it," he added.

The cause of the fire has yet to be ascertained but the location of this incident is not far from the location where the fire occurred a few days ago, namely in the village of Palem Raya, North Indralaya.

Officers believe that weather factors that have entered the peak of the dry season were the cause of the fire.

"Or maybe humans are negligent when fishing around here and then throw away cigarette butts, we can't know for sure," said Munir.