KUBU RAYA, WEST KALIMANTAN — Forest and land fires (karhutla) occurred in the West Kalimantan region on Friday (07/26/2024). The local provincial government also declared the status of Karhutla Emergency Alert, because many hotspots have appeared in the West Kalimantan region, which is now experiencing the dry season.
Dompet Dhuafa through the Disaster Management Center (DMC) also responded to the forest and land fire incident that occurred in Arang Limbung Village, Sungai Raya District, Kubu Raya Regency.
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Eka Suwandi, Manager of the DMC Recovery & Volunteerism Emergency Team, said that his party mobilized personnel to help accelerate the extinguishing of forest and land fires and conduct a rapid assessment of the impact of forest and land fires.
“The DMC team helped extinguish the fire at the forest and land fire point with the firefighting team in Arang Limbung Village. In addition, the DMC also conducted an assessment of the possibility of further new hotspots,” said Eka.
Based on data from the West Kalimantan BPBD, there are 332 villages prone to forest and land fires. Meanwhile, the land burned in West Kalimantan in the last five years is also not small.
In 2019, 151,819 hectares of land were burned. Furthermore, in 2020 there were 7,647 hectares, in 2021 there were 20,591 hectares, and in 2022 there were 21,839 hectares. Meanwhile, during the January-September 2023 period an area of 54,402.81 hectares was engulfed in flames. (Dompet Dhuafa)
Text and photo: Narwan, DMC
Editor: Dhika