HSS declares land and forest fire alert status

Kandangan, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - The South Hulu Sungai (HSS) government has set the district on emergency alert for land and forest fires from 1 July to 31 November 2019.


The Head of the HSS Disaster Mitigation and National and Political Unity Agency (PB Kesbangpol) Efran declared the government had set an emergency alert status for five months or during the dry season.

This determination, especially for seven sub-districts, which are considered prone to land fires. The seven sub-districts prone to hotspots include three Daha areas, namely South Daha, North Daha and West Daha, then Kalumpang, Kandangan, Angkinang, and Telaga Langsat.

Efran pointed out, based on the results of monitoring during July there were 61 hotspots, while in August to date 37 hotspots were detected.

"In addition to this number, many hotspots were not monitored by officers," he said at the HSS District Government Coordination Meeting, Wednesday (7/8) morning.

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He explained, handling forest and land fire is a shared responsibility with the community. Coordination has been carried out with all parties to prevent. Efforts include mobilizing the forest and land fire prevention forces that are deployed to the fire-prone sub-districts.

HSS Deputy Regent Syamsuri Arsyad said that Indonesian President Joko Widodo had directed four matters regarding forest and land fire control to the national coordination meeting for forest and land fire control at the State Palace, Jakarta, Tuesday (6/8/2019). 

The four namely patrolling and early detection, extinguishing fires as soon as possible, utilizing technology to prevent forest and land fires, and directing the ranks of local governments, from provincial, district, sub-district to village levels, to have a completely complete structure and every village must have a minimum fire simple extinguisher.