Several hectares of coffee and oil palm plantations Atungbungsu were also gutted by fire, Yusman, the head of the local disaster mitigation office, said here on Tuesday.
The fire has spread to wider area approaching a human resettlement area.
"Around 30 hectars of forest and plantation areas at Mingkik and Nanding villages, Atungbungsu, Dempo Selatan, were gutted by fire," Yusman said.
Forest and plantation areas at Atungbungsu have been dried and prone to fire because there has been no rainfalls since three months ago.
Atungbungsu is the fire worst-affected area which is located near the border of Bukit Barisan forest.
Yusman suspected that the fire was triggered by cigarette butts.
Pagaralam Mayor Djazuli Kuris said he would mobilize two fire brigade trucks and several personnel to extinguish the fire.
The Pagaralam Disaster Mitigation Agency has detected several hot spots in Dempo Selatan and Dempo Tengah sub districts.
"Based on the monitoring result, there area around 30 hot spots, including five at Atungbungsu and six at Lubukbuntak, Dempo Selatan sub district," Yusman said.
Four hot spots are detected at Kancediwe, and five at Pelangkenidai, Dempo Tengah sub district.
"Tens of hot spots have developed in forest area bordering between Pagaralam and Lahat sub districts," he said.
In Pagaralam, the hot spots are detected at Lematang, Selangis, Lubuk Buntak, Autngbungsu and Muaratenang.
In every dry dry, the area is almost always hit by forest fires.
In 2008, hundreds of hectares of forest and plantation areas at Atungbungsu were razed by fire.
Pagaralam Deputy Mayor Ida Fitriati said his area has a protected forest area covering 28,364 hectares, but 30 percent of the area has been damaged.
(Uu.F001/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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