South Kalimantan Governor Calls for Widespread Implementation of Peatland Wetting Innovation

Banjarbaru (ANTARA) - The Governor of South Kalimantan, Muhidin, has requested that the innovation for wetting burning peatlands, developed by the South Kalimantan Regional Police Chief, Inspector General Dr Rosyanto Yudha Hermawan, be implemented across all forest and land fire (karhutla) areas within the province.

“The liquid innovation developed by the Forensic Laboratory Division based on the Police Chief’s idea has proven effective in cooling the temperature of burning peat more rapidly,” said Muhidin in Banjarbaru on Thursday.

The Governor personally witnessed the ‘peat injection’ method, which uses a specialised liquid, during a fire suppression operation in Pengayuan, South Landasan Ulin, Banjarbaru, conducted by the South Kalimantan Regional Police.

Initially, the Governor checked the soil temperature using a thermal drone to measure the surface temperature of the smoking ground. The results showed that the soil temperature had reached 120 degrees Celsius.

After just one minute, a re-check via the thermal drone revealed that the soil temperature had dropped to 30 degrees Celsius.

“The fact that the soil temperature decreased so quickly proves that this method succeeds in extinguishing embers underground, which has historically been extremely difficult to achieve with conventional watering,” Muhidin explained.

“If these underground embers can be extinguished, there will be no more smoke or potential for the fires to reignite,” he added.