Bekasi Regent Instructs Burangkeng TPA Mitigation To Prevent Fire

The waste disposal activity for the final disposal site belongs to the Bekasi Regency Government, West Java in Burangkeng Village, Setu District. (ANTARA/Pradita Kurniawan Syah).

Bekasi Regent Dani Ramdan instructed all relevant ranks to mitigate the Burangkeng Final Disposal Site (TPA) area, Setu District as an effort to prevent a fire incident at the regional waste collection center.

"Immediately carry out mitigation to prevent potential fires. There must be a unit on standby 24 hours fully. When a small fire occurs, it must be completely extinguished immediately," he said, quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, September 19.

He said there have been five incidents of TPA land fires in West Java Province due to the extreme dry season being faced. Mitigation is needed to prevent or minimize the impact of fires in that location.

"Therefore, for the Burangkeng TPA, I have instructed mitigation in the form of preparing fire protection facilities, be it hydrants or other water facilities to be reproduced and always be in a standby position," he said.

The man who is the Chief Executive of the West Java Province BPBD stated that swift and fast handling needs to be carried out in the event of a fire in an integrated waste disposal area.

According to him, the increase in the area affected by fires on the TPA land is often caused by unresolved fire extinguishing at the initial level of the fire incident, causing the fire to flare up again, thereby increasing the risk of vulnerability.

"When there has been a fire since childhood, it must be resolved, so the key is to complete it at the starting fire point. The mistake that often occurs is the incomplete extinguishing, at night it stops even though the fire spreads below because there is methane gas in the pile," he said.

Dani also stated that the mitigation of fires on the Burangkeng TPA land is one of the important things that the Bekasi Regency Government must do in the midst of an extreme dry season in addition to handling the impact of drought.

In addition to the location of land adjacent to residential areas, the Burangkeng TPA is a landfill that is still relied on to accommodate the volume of waste from the entire Bekasi Regency community.

"Of course, the thing we don't want the most is when a fire occurs, it spreads to residential areas. I also urge all residents, especially those close to the Burangkeng TPA, to take a role in protecting the land from potential fires," he said.