BNPB Chief Reveals Weather Hinders Firefighting Efforts at Mount Bromo
The head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Lieutenant General TNI Suharyanto, has revealed the main obstacle in extinguishing forest and land fires (karhutla) in the Mount Bromo area of East Java. He said the suppression efforts are being hampered by weather factors.
“The main obstacle faced in the field, particularly for air operations, is the weather factor of cloud cover in the valley of the water source at Ranu Kumbolo up to the flight path towards the fire hotspots at the heights of Mount Bromo. This has meant that air operations cannot be carried out continuously,” Suharyanto told reporters on Tuesday (11/8/2026).
In addition, weather modification operations (OMC) have also not been able to be carried out to accelerate the Bromo fire suppression operation. The reason is that the cloud mass above Mount Bromo is not yet supportive.
“According to information and weather analysis from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), efforts through OMC cannot currently be carried out because the cloud mass above Mount Bromo is not yet supportive. However, if there is development in the cloud mass, it will be followed up immediately,” he said.
Furthermore, Suharyanto said that the handling of the forest and land fires in Bromo has been ongoing since Sunday, 9 August 2026. At present, he said, the fire has been brought under control.
“Up to now, the land fire has been extinguished, leaving only one smoke point still monitored on the P 30 cliff in Probolinggo Regency and one fire point in Wonomitri, Pasuruan Regency,” Suharyanto said.
“Efforts currently being made are still continuing through water bombing and ground task force operations,” he added.
Fire Spreads to 520 Hectares
As is known, officers are still working to extinguish the fire in the Mount Bromo area, which has now reached an area of around 520 hectares. Three water bombing helicopters have been deployed to the location to assist with the suppression process.
As reported by detikJatim, officers estimate that the burned area has reached around 520 hectares. The fire has burned land dominated by dry mountain grass, a number of vegetation types, and edelweiss flowers.
Deputy Governor of East Java Emil Elestianto Dardak led coordination with a number of stakeholders on Sunday morning. They formulated a suppression strategy to prevent the fire from spreading further.
Suppression is being carried out through two schemes, namely ground and air operations. From the air, three water bombing helicopters have been deployed to douse a number of fire points.
Meanwhile, from the ground route, officers have deployed seven fire engines, three water spray drones, and hundreds of combined personnel from various elements.
Emil said that the fairly strong wind conditions are one of the obstacles in the suppression process. In addition, officers are facing limitations in manual equipment to handle the remaining hotspots and embers.
“Our current obstacle is indeed the limitation of manual tools. There are still remaining hotspots, the small fires really have to be handled manually. The large ones are handled using helicopters,” said Emil on Sunday (9/8).