Central Forest Fire Task Force sends 1,200 personnel to South Kalimantan

The field post for the Disaster Mitigation of Haze due to forest fire is established by the South Kalimantan BPBD in the peatland area of Guntung Damar Banjarbaru. (ANTARA/firman)

Aid personnel from center will soon arrive and attend the emergency prevention and mitigation response ceremony in South Kalimantan next week,

Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - 1,200 personnel from the Central Forest and Land Fire Task Force commanded by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) are deployed to South Kalimantan.

"Aid personnel from center will soon arrive and attend the emergency prevention and mitigation response ceremony in South Kalimantan next week," said Head of South Kalimantan Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Wahyuddin here on Wednesday.

The details of the personnel consist of 500 TNI soldiers, 200 personnel of the National Police, and volunteers who are members of the BNPB Forest Fire Task Force.

Wahyuddin revealed that the task force members would be distributed to every village prone to land fires with around 10 personnel per village.

There are seven regions in South Kalimantan declared emergency alert status as the priority placement of task force personnel, namely Banjarbaru City, Tanah Laut District, Barito Kuala District, Banjar District, Tapin District, South Hulu Sungai District, and Balangan District.

In addition to the assistance of additional personnel, South Kalimantan BPBD also received a helicopter for water bombing which is planned to arrive on Saturday.

The helicopter is planned to be in charge for the next four months to tackle the forest fires that occur at the height of the dry season in the coming August to October.

Based on satellite monitoring, he said, hotspots are still relatively small in South Kalimantan. Even so, if you look at each incident, it is actually high compared to other provinces.

"The hot spots that emerged were mostly not monitored by satellites, because the officers and the local community had already extinguished them. Every day there were three to five incidents of burning land reported and immediately addressed," explained Wahyuddin.

To all regency and city BPBDs, he also reminded them to carry out orders in accordance with South Kalimantan Governor H Sahbirin Noor's letter to prepare equipment, personnel and systems in the prevention and control of fire.