2 Land Fires Occurred In North Penajam Paser

ILLUSTRATION BETWEEN

PENAJAM - Head of the North Penajam Paser Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Budi Santoso explained that two land fires occurred in the area in one day.

"The potential for forest and land fires (karhutla) during the dry season is quite high. In one day two land fires were found," explained Budi Santoso as quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, August 12.

In the last two months, there have been eight cases of forest and land fires, and a number of locations experiencing forest and land fires are close to local residents' settlements.

The cause of forest and land fires in the area, he said, was suspected to be due to community activities that wanted to clear land in an easy way, namely burning without paying attention to the impact.

The public is advised to open land for agriculture using other safer methods, such as pioneering land even though it takes a long time.

Opening the land by pioneering, according to him, in addition to being safe from forest and land fires, the results of pioneering can be used as compost material.

The grass and dry leaves collected after pioneering the land can be mixed with compost-making materials, he added, are certainly more useful because there are no forest and land fires, as well as other impacts.

Until now, the BPBD of North Penajam Paser Regency, has managed to overcome eight forest and land fires with an area of approximately 6.03 hectares in the Benuo Takaitu area.

"The land that burned was about 6.03 hectares, all forest and land fires occurred in the Penajam sub-district," he said.

The high number of fire cases in the Penajam District area, because the majority of land in the area is peatlands that are flammable.

Forest and land fires began to occur during the dry season, namely four forest and land fires that occurred in July 2023 and August 2023, four forest and land fires have occurred.