Mount Arjuno Forest And Land Fire Fire Extinguishing Operation Led By Governor Khofifah With Water Bombing Engineering

East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa monitors forest and land fires on Mount Arjuno, Saturday (2/9/2023). (ANTARA/HO-East Java Provincial Government)

PASURUAN - Efforts to extinguish forest and land fires (karhutla) in the Mount Arjuno area are to use water bombing techniques (adamation with water vertically through helicopters to hotspots).

East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa directly led this blackout operation, Saturday, September 2. "So during the work visit (work visit) yesterday I continued to coordinate in the East Java Tangguh group regarding the condition of forest and land fires in Arjuno. We have coordinated with BNPB to ask for helicopter assistance. Alhamdulillah, today helicopter assistance from BNPB has started to operate," said Governor Khofifah in Pasuruan. live, Governor Khofifah carried out air monitoring of the current condition of forest and land fires on Mount Arjuno which was included in the Tahura R Soeryo area. It seems that several areas still have hotspots, especially in Bukit Budug Asu, Singosari District and even spread to Pasuruan Regency.

For this reason, the East Java Provincial Government has coordinated with BNPB to extinguish it by using water bombing techniques. This is because the fire that spreads to the Pasuruan Regency area until this afternoon has been recorded to have expanded to 1,200 hectares and has not been fully extinguished. They have been observed since August 31, 2023 at the hotspots that appeared, especially at points where it is difficult to extinguish manually. After observation of the eye and mapping, today we have immediately started doing water bombing as much as 13 trillions with once releasing 800 liters," he said. This air watershed has been carried out in the area of Tahura including the Cendono Village of Pasuruan Regency and Toyomarto Kab Village. Malang covering three hot spots in the Singosari area of Malang Regency and Tambaksari Village, Purwoda District, Pasuruan. In addition to outage by air, manual outage is still being carried out. It was recorded that 350 joint personnel from Tahra R Soerjo personnel who worked with the Peduli Api (MPA) community, volunteers, communities around the forest area and supported by BPBD East Java Province, BPBD Pasuruan Regency, BPBD Malang Regency, TNI and Polri have been deployed. Khofifah said that the condition of this forest and forest are indeed quite urgent and should be addressed with sigap, especially because of the weather that has been hit by El Nino which has not even in the past 10 days rained in the forest area of Arjuno. This is why the forest conditions of forest are getting worse. And if we see that the hotspots are still quite long. I see that the portrait of the hotspots, if it is not encountering rocks or boundaries that are prepared, then the fire will continue to spread and extend the burning area," he said. Not only natural factors, Governor Khofifah said that based on the results of the police investigation and also reports compiled by the East Java Forest Service, it is indicated that the cause of forest fires on the Arjuno slopes is that one of these is illegal hunting.

Regarding this, quoted from ANTARA, Saturday, September 2, Governor Khofifah appealed specifically to the public to stop illegal hunting activities. Because this irresponsible action has a very bad impact on the environment. "So what is confirmed is that the possibility of forest fires is a illegal hunting activity, so I ask to immediately stop it. Please protect our nature and protect our forest from illegal hunting," he said. In addition, seeing the condition of not having rained for a long time, Governor Khofifah specifically called on the public to start performing Istisqa prayers to ask for rain to be sent down. Mainly, for people who are around the Mount Arjuno area and areas experiencing drought. "With this condition, we see that it is time for us to perform Istisqa prayers' to ask for rain. Moreover, in this forest area it has not been raining for 10 days," said Khofifah. He added, This Istisqo prayer can be done by a field-based community or an open mosque yard. He emphasized that this is also an effort to extinguish forest fires. "In addition to physical efforts, let's start Shalat Istisqo'. Hopefully Allah will immediately send down a blessed rain. Those who can extinguish forest fires and provide a source of water for the people of East Java," he concluded.