Mountain climbers evacuated

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)