Thousands ready to harvest Hiyung bird's eye chili on fire

A farmer tring to extinguish fire using grass spray during wildfire in Hiyung bird's eye chili land, Tapin District, South Kalimantan, Friday (Sept 15, 2023) night. ANTARA/Muhammad Fauzi Fadilah

Rantau, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Head of Emergency and Logistics of the Tapin Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Sofyan estimated thousands of ready to crop Hiyung bird's eye chili plants caught fires, and the fire still cannot be controlled.

"There more than two thousand, we are still collecting data," he said in Hiyung Village, Tapin, Friday.

The agency together with firefighters (BPK) and farmers were still struggling to stamp out the fire.

"The fire broke at around 14:00 Wita," he said.

Resident of Hiyung Villagge, RT (neighborhood unit) 04, Ardiansyah (60), while trying to put out the fire using grass spray, admitted to surrender to losses suffered.

"4,000 trees burned," he said while extinguishing fire.

Ardiansyah calculated that the losses suffered were no less than IDR100 million.

"We hope that after the disaster there will be assistance from the government," he said quietly.

According to ANTARA's monitoring, the fires were seen rising high at several points. BPBD and the community looked overwhelmed trying to stamp out the fire.

They could not reach all the fire spots that spread widely in Hiyung Village. The authorities was currently unable to to estimate the number of Hiyung chili plants that were burned.

Until night the fire was still burning bushes and the Hiyung bird's eye chili land. The water was minimal and the wind blowing hard.

Meanwhile, Chief of the Karya Baru Farmers Group, Junaidi, who is also an extension officer for the Tapin District Agricultural Office, Junaidi, estimated that 12 thousand stalks of Hiyung cayenne pepper ready to be harvested have been burned since Friday afternoon.

"Based on farmers' reports, it is certain that three hectares have been burned," said Junaidi in Hiyung Village, Tapin, Friday night.

Hiyung bird's eye chili is superior types of chili, thus it selling value is higher in the market. It is the hottest bird's eye chili in Indonesia, with the level of spiciness 17 times higher than other varieties of bird's eye chili.