Fire threatens protected forest area
Nana Rukmana and Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Kuningan/Purwokerto
A fire that has been raging in a pine forest on the slopes of Mt. Ciremai near here since Friday continues to burn out of control and is spreading.
The spokesman for the Kuningan State Forest Management Company (Perhutani), Sulaeman, said on Tuesday drought and strong winds were hampering efforts to extinguish the fire.
New hotspots have been discovered in forest areas near the villages of Trijaya, Seda, Cibuntu and Padabeunghar. The fire already has swept through the areas of Munjul, Kubang, Leuweung Panjang, Sindang Kelud, Sijambe, Sigodeblag, Lempung Bitung and Leuweung Saeutik.
Pesawahan, situated on the border between Kuningan and Majalengka regencies, has been the hardest hit area so far.
Some 500 hectares of pine forest in the Kuningan and Majalengka regencies have been destroyed by the fire, with financial losses estimated at over Rp 375 million.
"The fire is likely to affect more forest areas in Kuningan regency, as it has been very difficult to bring it under control," Sulaeman said, adding that the fire was the most serious in five years.
The fire is also threatening protected forest area further up the mountain slope.
Efforts to fight the fire have involved people hiking to the top of the mountain. Due to the lack of water, they dug ditches to try and prevent the fire from spreading.
The pine forest, which belongs to the state forest company, lies between 1,000 meters and 1,500 meters above sea level.
It takes firefighters and volunteers six hours to scale the six sloping hills they must cover to reach the hotspots. Once they reach the fire, they have to deal with the lack of water that has hampered all efforts to save the forest.
The forest management company suspects the fire was sparked by dry pine needles.
Another forest fire has been burning on the slopes of Mt. Slamet, north of the Central Java town of Purwokerto, since Sunday. Volunteers and workers from the regency administration have been unable to extinguish the fire, which has engulfed northern parts of the volcano, which stands 3,428 meters above sea level.
Adi Widyanto of the Concerned Slamet Community (Komplet) said on Tuesday that the fire had burned some five hectares of land in Plawangan and Kaliwadas, some 200 meters above sea level.
He said he thought the fire was caused by a campfire abandoned by trekkers. The local administration has yet to deploy a fire brigade to battle the blaze.
Hartono, from the environmental control office for Mt. Slamet, said on Tuesday he would send a team to the hotspots. Last month, some 50 trekkers escaped after being cut off by a fire.