Joint Officers Put Out Forest And Land Fires In Sukamulya Village Sukabumi

Land and forest fires in Ciangsana Village, Sukamulya Village, Cikembar District, Sukabumi Regency, West Java, occurred on Monday (7/8/2023). ANTARA/Aditya Rohman

SUKABUMI - Joint officers from the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) and the Sukabumi Regency Fire Department (Damkar) extinguished forest and land fires in Sukamulya Village, Sukabumi Regency, West Java.

"The fire scorched about four hectares of forest and land in Ciangsana Village, Sukamulya Village, Cikembar District," said the Central Manager for Control and Operations (Pusdalops) of the Sukabumi Regency BPBD Daeng Sutisna as reported by ANTARA, Monday, August 7.

According to information gathered from local BPBD officers, the forest and land fires that occurred at around 18.30 WIB, it was suspected that there was an element of intent from the company that managed the land.

It is suspected that the company that was doing thecut and fill was deliberately burning the land to remove the weeds.

"However, the fire that was deliberately lit to burn the land overgrown with weeds actually spread to the forest and almost to residential areas. To anticipate the fire, it spreads and casualties, joint officers assisted by youths from Karang Taruna Sukamulya Village extinguish the fire," he said.

In addition, to extinguish the growing fire, three units of fire engines from the Sukabumi Regency Fire Department were also deployed to the location. Thanks to the cooperation, the fire eventually did not spread to residential areas and was successfully extinguished about an hour later or at 19.30 WIB.

Daeng said that from the results of the review and data collection, due to this fire, the area of land and forest affected was four hectares. Until now, firefighters are still at the location to carry out cooling to anticipate the presence of fire coal.

"Although there were no casualties in this fire, what has been done by the company by burning the land is very not justified, especially when it is currently dry, which could be a fire spreading into residential areas," he said.

He appealed to anyone not to carry out activities that have the potential for fire disasters in settlements, land or forests.

"With a dry environment, sparks can quickly enlarge if exposed to goods or flammable objects such as weeds or dry trees," he said.