South Kalimantan waiting for water bombing heli, fires reach 80 hectares

Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan (ANTARA) - South Kalimantan Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) is now waiting for water bombing helicopter it had proposed to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) as forest and land fires (karhutla) in the province have reached 80 hectares.

The agency has reported that in the last one month fires were estimated to hit 9 hectares of forest and 71 hectares of land.

"The latest data as of today fires reached 80 hectares and the most area was in Tanah Laut District around 39 hectares," said Manager of Center for Operation Control (Pusdalops) of the South Kalimantan BPBD Ricky Ferdyanto in Banjarbaru, Monday.

The second largest fire, he said, was in Banjarbaru City about 31 hectares, then Banjar District 9 hectares. Whereas fires in other areas did not exceed 1 hectare.

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Previously, the widest area of karhutla was in ring 1 (fire-prone area) around the Syamsudin Noor International Airport, Banjarbaru City.

"The field situation in Tanah Laut District is more difficult. If fire occurs, it usually takes a relatively longer that other regions," he said.

Regarding obstacles to handling fires, such as in Tanah Laut, South Kalimantan BPBD is waiting for BNPB's response to it request for an assistance in the form of water bombing helicopters.

The helikopter, said Ricky, is as solutin to handling fires in areas with difficult passages.

Currently, it prioritizes increasing supervison in airport areas which are prone to fires.

For priority areas such as Banjarbaru the agency conducts opening of irrigation canal watergates for peatland wetting in ring 1, the area around the airport.

He explained that ring 1 area covers a radius of about 5 kilometers from the Syamsudin Noor International Airport.

The area, he continued, is continues to be monitored periodically by patrolling the field from 08.00 to 18.00 Wita (Central Indonesia Time).

At night, the agency carries out guard at the BPBD main post.

Today, BPBD Task Force conducting patrols at three locations, namely Lake Cermin, Liang Anggang, and Gunung Kupang.

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