BPBD deploys helicopters to waterbomb fires in South Kalimantan

Banjarbaru Police Chief Adj Sr Comr (AKBP) Doni Hadi Santoso conducts air patrol to monitor forest and land fires. (ANTARA/Firman)

Fire locations could not be reached by the Land Task Force, so we deploy helicopters to carry out extinguishing,

Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - The South Kalimantan Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) has prepared four water-bombing helicopters to put out forest and land fires (karhutla) occurred in several areas in the province.

"Fire locations could not be reached by the Land Task Force, so we deploy helicopters to carry out extinguishing," said the Head of Prevention and Preparedness of the BPBD Sahruddin, Monday.

He said, there were four land hotspots that could not be reached by the Land Task Force, namely two locations in Bati-Bati, Tanah Laut, one in Martapura Barat, Banjar District, and one in South Hulu Sungai (HSS).

"Effort to extinguish and wetting are ongoing and continue to be carried out. Friends on the ground are also heading to the locations that are still accessible by vehicles," he explained to ANTARA.

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Sahruddin said, BPD has prepared four water-bombing helicopters dan and two patrol helicopters that are members of the Air Task Force of forest and land fires handling this year.

The fires that occurred in the last one week were in accordance with the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG) prediction that South Kalimantan is currently entering the peak of the dry season that dry land is prone to burning.

"Today 32 hotspots are detected. Usually, if there is not rain, at about 11.00 WITA hotspot appear, the land begins to dry and easy to fire," he said.
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