"This condition occurs because most of the burned land was in peat areas," West Aceh BPBD Acting Head Mukhtaruddin said in Meulaboh, Aceh on Sunday.
In February, he said, the agency had managed to extinguish peatland fires in West Aceh which spread across three separate locations: Peunaga Cut Village and Ranto Panyang Timur Village in Meureubo Sub-district, and one point in Ujong Beurasok, Lapang Village, Johan Pahlawan Sub-district, West Aceh District.
"The total area burned in West Aceh District in February 2022 was 1.49 hectares," Mukhtaruddin pointed out.
He emphasized that his team will always be ready to extinguish fires, even small scale ones.
"Because if it is not handled immediately, it could spread to a wider area," he said.
Therefore, West Aceh BPBD appealed to all communities not to conduct land burning activities to avoid land or forest fires in the area, he said.
Earlier, on February 25, 2022, the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) had detected two hotspots in the Aceh region that have the risks of experiencing forest and land fires.
"Throughout the day, two hotspots were detected in the Aceh region, so we urge residents to be aware of fires," the Head of Sultan Iskandar Muda Aceh Besar BMKG Class I Data and Information Section, Zakaria Ahmad, explained in Banda Aceh.
The two hotspots were detected in Trumon Timur Sub-district, South Aceh District, with a medium confidence level, which was resulted from the monitoring by Terra, Aqua, and Suomi NPP satellite sensors.
According to Ahmad, drought had also hit some districts/cities so land and forest fire was very likely to happen, especially in peat areas.
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Translator: Teuku I, Kenzu T
Editor: Sri Haryati
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