A fire that gutted the Mt. Guntur nature conservatory in the West Java regency of Garut has spread across a 30-hectare area, an official said Tuesday.
Head of the Garut Forestry Agency Edi Muharam said the fire occurred on Monday and affected a village in Rejeng block.
He suspected the fire was triggered by farmers burning bushes and was exacerbated by the hot weather.
“Strong wind caused the fire to spread to the natural conservation area,” Edi said.
Forest rangers and local residents managed to extinguish the fire at 4:30 p.m., six hours after it began to spread to the conservation area. Edi said the burned plants were mostly pine.
The Garut regent had issued a memo to village chiefs across the regency asking them to raise their alerts of forest fires during the dry season.
Edi said local forest communities living on the foot of Mt. Guntur had voluntarily raised public awareness about forest fire prevention.
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