NTB records 719 fires until August, with losses exceeding Rp70.9 billion
Mataram (ANTARA) - A total of 719 fire incidents struck Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) during the period from 1 January to 31 August 2026, with total losses estimated to reach more than Rp70.97 billion.
The Head of the NTB Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Sadimin, stated that based on available data, these fires were dominated by residential and land fires.
“Residential fires were the highest with 212 incidents, followed by land fires with 1s88 incidents and other categories with 99 incidents. Meanwhile, fires at Landfills (TPA) recorded 85 incidents,” he said in Mataram on Tuesday.
Regarding forest fires, zero incidents were recorded during these eight months. Other types of fires included economic centres (55), transport (30), vital objects (22), offices (11), educational facilities (8), hotels/inns (5), and health and religious facilities with 2 incidents each.
According to him, out of hundreds of fire incidents, two people died, 10 were injured, and 2,775 people were affected. On the other hand, Firefighters managed to save 2,787 lives and 848 families from the flames, with the estimated value of property saved amounting to Rp11.4 billion.
When mapped by region, Sadimin noted that East Lombok had the highest number of fire incidents with 131, followed by Central Lombok (103), West Lombok (98), Bima (81), North Lombok (79), Sumbawa (79), Mataram (63), West Sumbawa (37), Bima City (33), and the lowest in Dompu with 15.
Regarding response speed, the performance of the NTB Fire Department was deemed quite good. Out of the 719 incidents, 527 were responded to in less than 15 minutes. However, there were still 65 incidents with response times exceeding 15 minutes, and 52 incidents where response times were not recorded.
In addition to fires, the agency also recorded 2,082 non-fire incidents during the period from 1 January to 31 August.
Among these 2,082 non-fire incidents, the most dominant were the handling of dangerous animals and animal rescues, totalling 1,036 incidents, or nearly 50 per cent of the total reports received.
This was followed by wasp/bee nest evacuations (253), ring removals (209), fallen trees (205), rescue operations (129), clean water distribution (99), first aid for accidents (26), natural disasters (23), and 102 other incidents.
“From this data, it is recorded that 12 people were injured and 4 people died in various non-fire incidents. These incidents also provided services to 1,819 families or 5,375 individuals,” Sadimin revealed.
In terms of distribution across the 10 regencies/cities, East Lombok Regency had the highest number of non-fire incidents with 361, followed by Central Lombok (362), North Lombok (318), and West Lombok (273).
Meanwhile, Mataram City recorded 226 incidents, Bima City 215, West Sumbawa 144, Sumbawa Regency 134, Bima Regency 82, and Dompu Regency 69.
In North Lombok, out of 318 incidents, 154 involved the handling of dangerous animals. A similar trend occurred in West Lombok, with 120 cases of dangerous animals out of 273 incidents.
“This shows that the role of the Fire Department has significantly shifted. The public does not only call the Fire Department during fires, but for almost all emergency conditions, ranging from wild animals entering homes and rings that cannot be removed, to fallen trees blocking roads,” he explained.
Sadimin urged the public to increase vigilance, especially during the dry season, considering that the majority of fires occur in residential and land areas triggered by human negligence.
“The public should report immediately if they encounter non-fire emergency conditions through the available hotline,” he said.