The Last 6 Months Of Forest And Land Fires In Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Killed 23 Hectares Of Land

The joint SAR team extinguished the forest and land fires that occurred in Palangka Raya City some time ago. (ANTARA/HO-BPBD Palangka Raya City)

KALTENG - About 23 hectares were eaten by red roosters in the forest and land fires (karhutla) incident in Palangka Raya City. This figure calculates forest and land fires during the period January to mid-June 2023.

"Indeed, we recorded that for six months there were 23.47 hectares, while the forest and land fires that occurred 36 times," said the Head of Prevention and Preparedness at the Palangka Raya City BPBD, Heri Fauzi, in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan (Central Kalimantan), Thursday, June 15, was confiscated by Antara.

He said that forest and land fires in Palangka Raya occur at several different points almost every day. Luckily, local City BPBD personnel together with a joint team from the TNI, Polri, as well as related agencies in the Central Kalimantan Provincial Government (Pemprov), worked hand in hand to extinguish the fire that ate the vacant land.

"During the incident, the joint team in the field always managed to extinguish the flames that ate land at a number of points. Even the blackouts also used water bombing helicopters to overcome the location of the incident which was far from the reach of the field team," he said.

Heri revealed that with the rain that has fallen in the last few days, it can certainly help extinguish and wet the land which is currently dry due to the very hot sun in the last few weeks.

At least, he said, rain could reduce the potential for forest and land fires. He hopes that forest and land fires will not be as severe as in 2015, so that anticipation will continue in various ways.

"Hopefully the rain will continue to fall in a few days, so that forest and land fires in Palangka Raya City do not occur every day and our city does not become a smoke producer which can have an impact on community activities in the local area," said Heri.

From observations in the field, the joint teams, both the Palangka Raya City BPBD and the TNI-Polri in each sub-district, continue to be on standby for 1x24 hours to overcome the threat of forest and land fires. Even the joint team is also aggressively conducting socialization related to forest and land fires to the community massively.