PANGKALPINANG -- The PT Timah Tbk Fire and Rescue Team and the Pangkalpinang City Fire Team are working to extinguish forest fires in Lontong Pancur Village and Selindung Village, Pangkalpinang City, Wednesday (25/10/2023).
The fire that occurred from 16.00 WIB until evening could not be extinguished because what was burning was peatland. Apart from that, the strong winds made it quite difficult to control the fire.
The head of Lontong Pancur Village, Adli, said that in the last three years, fires have often occurred in this area.
"This incident occurred at 16.00 WIB until now it has not been extinguished, maybe it will be until tomorrow because the contour of the land on the burned land is peat land. "In addition, with an area of ??around 18 hectares, it was difficult for the fire teams to extinguish the fire," he said.
His part suspects that this fire occurred due to human negligence in throwing away cigarette butts carelessly.
"There is a strong suspicion that the cause of this fire is human factors because they do not understand the dangers of throwing cigarette butts carelessly," he said.
He hopes that the public will not carry out activities that can pose a fire hazard, such as throwing cigarette butts carelessly and burning rubbish.
"Currently the weather conditions are still extreme, so we ask for help to stop burning anything immediately because the conditions are already serious. "Especially this El Nino, where water needs are scarce, plus a fire disaster like this, of course, this is the toughest test for us," he continued.
He said he appreciated PT Timah Tbk for helping them extinguish the fire so that it could reduce the impact of the spread of the fire.
"We are very grateful to PT Timah, this is a form of PT Timah's concern for the community and the environment, of course, this is the action we have been waiting for from PT Timah, thank you PT Timah," said Adli.
Meanwhile, Selindung Village Development Officer (Babinsa), Koramil 5 Tamansari Riswadi really appreciated the members of the MIND ID mining holding for helping them in dealing with the fire disaster.
"This is quite a big fire disaster, but at this time we have not received any reports from the public regarding respiratory problems (ARI), but we will continue to anticipate this. "We also cannot conclude the cause of the fire," he said.
According to him, the impact of this fire was quite disturbing for residents because the smoke continued to billow.
"We are grateful for the assistance from the PT Timah Fire Department which has helped overcome this fire, which has had a huge impact on local residents because the impact of the smoke is extraordinary," he said. (*)
