TNBTS Suspects Human Activity Caused Bromo Fire

The Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) suspects that the fire which struck the Mount Bromo area was not caused by natural factors but by human activity.

“There is a possibility of human factors, not nature,” said Head of the TNBTS Centre Rudijanta Tjahja Nugraha at Mount Bromo, East Java, Friday.

The suspected cause of the fire is linked to the initial point of the incident, namely in the Blok Bantengan area.

Rudi said that in the Blok Bantengan area there is a traditional route or through road connecting Arjosari Village with Ranu Pani.

“Sometimes people passing through in cold weather make a campfire and possibly forget about it or something like that, that is what we suspect,” he said.

However, this is still an initial suspicion as his office needs to conduct further investigation into the exact cause of the fire.

Regarding losses, Rudi said that no loss calculation has been carried out yet because it must involve parties with expertise in such assessments, including detailed mapping of the affected vegetation.

He added that his team is still focused on extinguishing efforts and minimising the potential for fire to re-emerge from remaining grass and burnt trees.

“Whether this was intentional or not, in our view it was actually unintentional. Because as I said, sometimes people want to warm themselves up, not because they want to burn and cause something like this, so there is an element of unintentionality in our suspicion,” he said.

ANTARA’s observation from Mount Bromo showed that firefighting efforts are still ongoing. Although most of the fire appears to have been extinguished, there are still points emitting smoke.

Handling is being carried out intensively by joint officers from the ground and reinforced with water sprayer drones belonging to the East Java Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD).

Extinguishing efforts have become more intensive after a water bombing helicopter belonging to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) was deployed to accelerate the response.