Prabowo instructs acceleration of Bromo fire suppression

State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi said the central government fully supports accelerating the suppression of fires in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) area, East Java.

Prasetyo, at the Presidential Palace complex in Jakarta on Tuesday, said President Prabowo Subianto has issued instructions to speed up the handling of the fires.

“The central government fully supports whatever is needed by the regional government, by BNPB, by our colleagues at Manggala Agni of the Ministry of Forestry, by the provincial government, or for example in Bromo by the National Park Office, we fully support it,” he said.

Prasetyo also urged the public to avoid activities that could potentially trigger fires amid dry weather conditions.

He recalled the 2023 Bromo fire, which was triggered by the use of flares during a pre-wedding photo shoot at Teletubbies Hill in the TNBTS area.

“We have repeatedly conveyed appeals to the entire community to be vigilant, to avoid things that could create the potential for fires, as happened in Bromo-Tengger a few years ago with a pre-wedding shoot,” he said.

Prasetyo also asked the public to increase awareness of fire potential amid weather conditions that he said were dry and influenced by El Niño.

“Let us all be vigilant because the El Niño is quite strong and the weather is quite dry,” he said.

Regarding weather modification operations (OMC), Prasetyo said the government has prepared that option to assist in fire handling.

However, according to him, the implementation of OMC depends on atmospheric conditions that allow for rain formation.

“We have prepared all the designs, but technically, according to the explanation from the BMKG head, conditions that allow weather modification operations to produce rain are not always available,” he said.

Prasetyo said the government will continue to support the joint team carrying out fire suppression in the Bromo area.

Based on the latest data from the handling team on Tuesday, the area of forest and land fire handling in the TNBTS area reached approximately 899.35 hectares, while ground and air suppression operations are still ongoing.