Natuna Regency Extinguishes Fire Burning Four Hectares of Land

Natuna (ANTARA) - The Natuna Regency Government (Pemkab), Riau Islands Province, has successfully extinguished a fire that burned four hectares of forest and land, as well as the warehouse of a community health centre (puskesmas).

Head of the Fire and Rescue Agency (Disdamkarmat) of Natuna Regency, Syawal, confirmed from Natuna on Saturday that the fire location was in South Bunguran Sub-district, an area prone to fires.

Information about the fire was received by Disdamkarmat on Friday (17/4) afternoon, and extinguishing operations began immediately after approximately 30 minutes of travel to the incident site. The extinguishing process was estimated to take six hours and 42 minutes.

“Besides the land, the puskesmas warehouse was also burned, with contents including files and some medicines inside,” he said.

Vegetation in Natuna is largely dried out due to the El Niño phenomenon. El Niño has resulted in Natuna rarely being hit by rain, causing vegetation to lack water supply and eventually dry up and die. Such conditions increase the fire potential and allow flames to spread more quickly.

“In that operation, we deployed two fire trucks,” he said.

His side, he continued, faced challenges in the extinguishing process due to distant water sources and difficult access to the location. In the firefighting operation, Natuna’s Disdamkarmat was assisted by the TNI, Police, and staff from the South Bunguran Sub-district Office. There were no fatalities in the incident, and the cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

“The extinguishing was completed at 18:59 WIB, after which the fleet returned to the command post 15 minutes later,” he stated.