Area Affected by Bromo Fire Reaches 899 Hectares
The number of hotspots in the Mount Bromo area has begun to decrease. However, the impact of the forest and land fires in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) has reached 899 hectares, as reported on Tuesday (11/8).
“The joint team continues to maximise water bombing operations today to suppress the spread of the fire,” said Head of the East Java Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Gatot Soebroto in Surabaya on Tuesday (11/8). He stated that the aerial operation is currently focused on the Dingklik area in Pasuruan and P30 in Probolinggo. Gatot revealed that the water bombing operations have not been running optimally due to several obstacles on the ground. One of the main issues is the limited availability of water sources, which are located quite far from the fire spots. Additionally, weather conditions pose a challenge, with strong winds and rapidly changing weather complicating the aerial firefighting process.
“The water sources are far, the winds are strong, the weather is changeable, the topography is steep, and there is plenty of fuel in the form of dry, highly flammable reeds and leaf litter,” he said. To strengthen the firefighting efforts, he noted that the government is also enhancing ground-level handling. Since yesterday (10/8), the joint team has deployed two fire trucks, two water tankers, one L300 vehicle carrying a water tank, and one drone water spray unit.
On the same occasion, the Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) and the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) visited the Bromo fire handling command post on Tuesday afternoon (11/8). Both provided directives to optimise all available resources, including personnel from the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) and the National Police (Polri), as well as other relevant teams. The firefighting efforts at Bromo will be strengthened through a combination of ground teams and water bombing operations to control hotspots that still have the potential to spread.
“Currently, the Head of BNPB and the Coordinating Minister for PMK are at the Bromo fire handling command post providing directives, including maximising personnel from the TNI and Polri as well as related teams to strengthen the ground crew, and making maximum efforts for water bombing,” Gatot said.