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40 hectares peats burned down in Sebangau National Park

Palangka Raya, Ekuatorial – Nearly forty hectares of areas burned down at Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan, an official said on Tuesday (16/9).

Nandang Prihadi, Head of Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Agency, said that fires ravaging Bangah village, Pulang Pisau sub district, were the hardest to extinguish even with the help of forest fires fighter of Manggala Agni of Ministry of Forestry.

On Tuesday, Ekuatorial joined the fire fighter team to see how they tackled fires in Sebangau National Park. Using water transportation, the team headed to Pakuyah and Ules areas in Sebangau Kuala sub district, Pulang Pisau district. The areas burned down reached eight hectares.

Dedi Santoso, an official of the national park who joined the team, said that fires spread so quickly because it was mostly peatlands which were hard to put out if burned down.

“So, it spread very quickly and you don’t see it during the day because it went through underground which makes it hard to put out. We need to shot the water straight underground,” said Santoso.

The 500,000 hectares national is a protected areas home to endangered species, including orangutans. It is also a part of Indonesia’s pilot project on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation program dubbed as REDD+.

Fires fighting at Sebangau National Park have already started on Sept 16 and will end on Sept 19. “We are focusing on cut the flame so it will not spread wider,” said Santoso. “We will add more teams to help us because we haven’t covered all burned areas and today we only managed eight out of ten hectares.”

Meanwhile, Muchtar, said that MI-8 helicopter did not do water bombing for two days due to technical issues. “Once the spare part arrived, we will fix it as soon as possible,” he said adding that thick smog had blanketed the city. Maturidi.

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