PONTIANAK, WEST KALIMANTAN — “Our earth must be preserved, do not destroy nature,” said Rendy Akbar, one of the volunteer fire fighters of forest and land fires (karhutla) when met at the Dompet Ummat program office, Sungai Jawi Dalam Village, West Pontianak District, Pontianak City, West Kalimantan, Thursday (14/9/2023).
Rendy Akbar or commonly called Rendy is a resident of Pontianak City. At certain times he works as a security guard at a company engaged in construction in the Pontianak City area. While at other times, he is a blackout volunteer in Pontianak City.
Pontianak City itself has two sides of fire fighting, there are fire fighting from the government, there are also those from non-governmental organizations. Rendy himself is a member of the Sungai Kakap Fire Extinguishing Agency (BPA) volunteer in Kubu Raya Regency.
Apart from BPA Sungai Kakap, Rendy has also volunteered with Dompet Dhuafa’s Disaster Management Center (DMC) in West Kalimantan since August 23, 2023. Long before, he had joined as a blackout volunteer starting from 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in Indonesia.
In contrast to his experience with BPA Sungai Kakap, where the majority of extinguishing activities are in urban areas, during his time as a DMC Dompet Dhuafa volunteer, Randy participated in the action of extinguishing forest and land fires in Arang Limbung Village, Sungai Raya District, Kubu Raya Regency, West Kalimantan.
Precisely, this location is in front of the entrance to SMA Negeri 4 Sungai Raya. The distance between the hotspot and the school reaches 20 to 30 meters. Although it is fairly far away, it is still dangerous for the school environment as well as students and teachers.
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Using complete personal protective equipment (PPE), Randy sprayed water on the fire. It took a long time for the fire to be extinguished, considering that the location is a flammable peatland that stores fire and heat.
“Peat is difficult to extinguish, especially if we have trouble with water (it becomes even more of a headache). Usually, we will make a ‘swimming pool’ (as a water source) or use a water tank to extinguish the fire,” said Rendy, trying to remember the action of fighting forest and land fires.
Smoke and heat enveloped Rendy. Even so, he remained loyal and enthusiastic in extinguishing the fire on the peatland. To be honest, he really regrets the people responsible for the forest and land fires in the West Kalimantan region. It’s hard to imagine that in the morning, instead of breathing in fresh air complete with warm, crisp sunlight on the skin, we are presented with the smell of burning smoke that sometimes makes us confused whether the sky is cloudy or covered in smoke.
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“The impact (of forest and land fires) is smoke, in the morning we already breathe smoke,” said Rendy, regretting the occurrence of forest and land fires.
“If it has entered the dry season, avoid burning activities (in fields and anywhere). Because if it has entered the dry season, then it (forest and land fires) is always there,” continued Rendy trying to give advice to anyone reading this article.
Rendy said that volunteering to extinguish the fire was his calling. He was moved to help others even though he had to expose himself to the risks of these volunteer activities. Fortunately, his wife allowed Rendy to join the volunteer action. Although she was worried, his wife supported him and waited faithfully at their house with their favorite child.
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Rendy also told us about his experience as a volunteer fire fighter. He said that he was once berated by residents because the fire truck he was driving was late arriving at the scene. When he got out of the car and was getting ready to extinguish the fire, he heard scorn from residents who came to see the fire.
“When we arrive late, people like to scold us. Coming is wrong, not coming is more wrong,” Rendy admitted.
Even so, this does not make Rendy’s spirit disappear, instead he makes it a lesson to become a better volunteer in the future. He also continues to invite volunteers to keep up their enthusiasm for humanitarian work.
Good friends, let us wish the best for volunteers like Rendy, who take the time to contribute to the world of humanity, a field of helping people and the environment without any strings attached. Hopefully this will be a motivation and also a prayer so that many will be moved to volunteer in helping others and helping and preserving the earth. Because the Earth is only one, Empower Now. (Dompet Dhuafa/DMC/AFP/Muthohar)