BPBD: Forest and Land Fires on Mount Arjuno-Welirang Successfully Extinguished
The forest and land fires (karhutla) that struck the Raden Soerjo Grand Forest Park (Tahura) area on Mount Arjuno-Welirang, East Java, were finally extinguished on Friday (21/8).
Head of the East Java Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Gatot Soebroto said the joint team had succeeded in bringing all remaining hotspots under control.
Gatot noted that the last hotspots detected and immediately handled by officers were in two locations: the Lembah Kijang area and Kembar 2.
“Everything has been extinguished, the last being in the Lembah Kijang and Kembar 2 areas. Today the ground team carried out suppression of embers in those areas,” said Gatot when contacted.
In today’s firefighting efforts, officers also deployed aerial assistance by dispatching a helicopter for water bombing operations. Unfortunately, this could not be carried out optimally due to weather constraints.
Thick fog that suddenly descended and blanketed the Arjuno-Welirang area in the afternoon forced the aircraft to be withdrawn earlier than planned to its base at Abdulrachman Saleh Airport in Malang Regency for flight safety reasons.
“Water bombing was carried out once, but the foggy weather conditions meant the helicopter returned to Abd Saleh in the afternoon,” he said.
Although the forest and land fires in the Arjuno-Welirang area have generally been declared extinguished, Gatot stressed that officers would continue to conduct monitoring and patrols.
He said ground team sweep operations would still be carried out to detect any remaining embers that could potentially trigger a subsequent fire.
In addition, an aerial firefighting scenario would remain on standby should plumes of smoke reappear in the conservation area at any time.
“Tomorrow patrols and water bombing will be carried out again if there is still smoke. Meanwhile, the ground team will continue patrolling to check for remaining embers,” he concluded.
As is known, the forest and land fires in the Raden Soerjo Grand Forest Park area on Mount Arjuno-Welirang began on Tuesday (18/8). The total area of land affected by the fires has not yet been determined.
As a result of the fires, the hiking trails on Mount Arjuno-Welirang have been temporarily closed since Wednesday (19/8) until an unspecified time. The closure is based on a public notice issued by the Raden Soerjo Grand Forest Park Technical Implementation Unit Number 500.4.6.10/1276/123.7.2/2026.