Probolinggo, East Java (ANTARA) - Forest and land fires (karhutla)\nhave re-emerged in Mount Bromo, located within the Bromo Tengger Semeru\nNational Park (TNBTS) in Probolinggo Regency, East Java, prompting\nofficials to struggle to extinguish the blaze.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fire occurred in the Penggol Block, Ngadisari Village, Sukapura\nDistrict, from Thursday (10\/9) afternoon and has not yet been\nsuccessfully extinguished as of today,\u201d said the Head of the Probolinggo\nRegional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Oemar Sjarif, when contacted\nvia mobile phone in Probolinggo on Friday.<\/p>\n
According to him, joint personnel from TNBTS, BPBD, the TNI-Polri\n(Indonesian National Armed Forces and National Police), and volunteers\nare conducting maximum firefighting efforts using manual tools, though\nthe terrain remains quite extreme.<\/p>\n
To address this, he continued, the joint task force is creating\nfirebreaks in unburnt areas to prevent the fire from spreading easily to\nother locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers are performing containment, but strong winds are\nfacilitating the spread of fire to dry cogon grass; the containment is\nbeing carried out to ensure the fire does not spread elsewhere,\u201d he\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Oemar explained that the handling of the forest fire in Mount Bromo\nalso involves using water bombing helicopters belonging to the East Java\nBPBD, as the fire points are located on steep cliffs; however,\noperations are occasionally hindered by fog descending over the TNBTS\narea.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope that the weather will clear so that firefighting can be\noptimised, both manually when the terrain is accessible to officers and\nvia water bombing helicopters when the terrain is unreachable,\u201d he\nadded.<\/p>\n
Field reports indicate that the forest fire in the Penggol hill area\nis expanding towards the Watangan valley, commonly known as Teletubbies\nHill, forcing officers to work extra hard to prevent further spread.<\/p>\n
The Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park Authority has also closed part\nof the Mount Bromo tourist access from the Jemplang entrance in Malang\ndue to the fires since Thursday (10\/9).<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/forest-fires-re-emerge-in-mount-bromo-area-1789121711", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }