Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) of Banjarbaru City, South Kalimantan, urged people to be aware of the potential for land and forest fires (popularly known as karhutla) as the city declared the status of natural disaster alert.
"We urge the public to be aware of land and forest fires, because Banjarbaru status is on disaster alert," said Head of Banjarbaru BPBD Zaini Syahrani here on Wednesday.
Today, he said, the city in general is still in transition period, but a number of areas have begun to enter the dry season acording to information from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
Read also: Karhutla task force stamps out fires in airport area, Banjarbaru
BMKG's prediction also said that several areas in the city entering the third week of May are already in dry season zone, even though rain sometimes falls.
"So we urge all people to be vigilant and alert, because BMKG's prediction is that toward the end of May it will enter the dry season, so we must not be careless," said Zaini.
Zaini informed that until mid-May, the agency had handled three forest and land fires incidents in Cempaka Sub-district, Banjarbaru, on relatively small scale sso officers in the field could handle them.
"The anticipatory steps taken are routine patrol and monitoring of fire-prone areas for 24 hours through a rapid response team supported by disaster-care community who go into the field," he said.
The city's BPBD has 25 active members of rapid response team (TRC) supported by 100 disaster-aware community members spread across urban villages and have been equipped with training and supported by basic equipment.
Read also: Banjarbaru Police increase patrol to prevent forest and land fires
