10-Hectare Jatibarang Landfill Fire: Semarang Firefighters Lack Excavators to Extinguish Flames

Personnel from the Semarang City Fire Department (Damkar) are still working to extinguish a fire at the Jatibarang Landfill. A lack of available excavators has become a significant obstacle in the efforts to suppress the flames, which have consumed around 10 hectares of the landfill site.

Tantri Pradono, Head of Operations and Rescue at the Semarang City Fire Department, revealed that as of Thursday morning, personnel had managed to control the main blaze. “However, there are still active hotspots, even if they are not as numerous as last night. The main issue is the thick smoke,” he stated during an interview.

He explained that to completely extinguish the hotspots, excavators are required to break up the massive mounds of waste while firefighters simultaneously spray water. “Spraying only the surface is ineffective. New hotspots could emerge because the fire has penetrated very deep into the waste,” he said.

Tantri noted that the height of the waste mounds at the fire sites reaches dozens of metres. “The challenge is that the fire covers a wide area across Zones 1, 2, and 3. It is quite difficult because the number of excavators available at the Jatibarang Landfill is limited,” he added.

He further mentioned that currently, only two excavators are operating in the field to assist with the firefighting process. “To accelerate the process, we need at least four excavators. We will submit a proposal for this,” Tantri concluded.