Mountain climbers evacuated

PURWOKERTO, Central Java (JP): At least 22 mountain climbers have been evacuated from Mt. Slamet after being trapped by a forest fire.

They were evacuated yesterday by firemen from the local military and police offices and a University of Soedirman Search and Rescue team.

The 22, who are mostly students, come from different cities in this province and from Jakarta.

By Sunday afternoon, the fire, the cause of which is still under investigation, had burnt 125 hectares of forest in this mountain area.

Hadibroto, head of the Search and Rescue team, told The Jakarta Post that the fire was first noticed in the Sanghyang Jampang area, at an elevation of 2,910 meters, or about 500 meters from the mountain top.

He also said that the military and residents had worked together in the fight against the fire.

"If we had helicopters we could have subdued the fire much faster," he said.

There were 128 climbers on Sunday but 106 of them had come down in the morning. The rest were trapped by the fire in the 2,575-meter-high Samarantu area, Hadibroto added.

Sunarto, head of the Karangreja district, the closest area to the mountain, told the Post that many mountain climbers did not report to the local forest supervision post on Sunday.

The administrator of the state-owned forestry company Perhutani's local chapter, Sanyoto, said that the fire had affected clump forest only and that he was worried it would spread into the East Banyumas and Pekalongan forests, which are owned by the company.

Sanyoto said that to help curb the fire's spread he had sent in 20 well-equipped wood cutters. (wah/05)