W

ith human error found to be the main cause of recent raging fires on Mount Merbabu and other mountains in Java, local authorities have strongly warned people against lighting fires when climbing mountains during this year'€™s prolonged dry season.

Central Java Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) head Sarwa Pramana said even a small spark had the potential to cause widespread forest fires, taking the recent fire on Mt. Merbabu as an example.

'€œThat'€™s why we have asked all regional BPBDs across the province to continuously educate firewood seekers and climbers about the danger of lighting a fire while climbing during this long dry season,'€ Sarwa told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Sunday.

Last week, a massive fire, which lasted several days, burned at least 90 hectares of pine forest on the slopes of Mt. Merbabu. Of the affected area, 40 ha are located in Magelang regency and the remaining 50 ha are in Boyolali regency.

The fire was finally extinguished on Saturday evening after local authorities deployed 330-strong joint fire-fighting team to put out the fire. The personnel were reportedly struggling to extinguish the fire as they only had limited equipment and water sources.

Mt. Merbabu, along with Mt. Merapi known as the 2M hike, is a well-known destination among trekkers. Mt. Merbabu has several false summits; with its true summit located 3,145 meters above sea level at Kenteng Songo, where Merapi'€™s smoky peak is only a stone'€™s throw away.

It takes about eight hours for hikers to reach the top of Merbabu through the shortest route.

Boyolali BPBD'€™s emergency division head Purwanto said that 2 percent of the burned forest, which was located in the western ravine of the Batu Tulis post, was hard to reach because of its difficult access.

'€œThere are still flames, but it is just a small area. We will clear it tomorrow [Monday],'€ Purwanto said.

While the dry season normally occurs from April to September, the El Niño weather phenomenon has been predicted to extend the dry season until the end of the year.

Sarwa said all regional BPBDs in the province had been instructed to disseminate information about the contact numbers of disaster posts in their respective regions through the media, so that when a disaster struck it could be handled expediently.

The same success in extinguishing fire was also made on the slopes of Mt. Slamet in Tegal, Central Java, where at least 15 hectares of forest recently burned for two days.

Meanwhile in West Java, the Kuningan BPBD recently closed Mt. Ciremai to hikers indefinitely because of a forest fire that has been raging on the mountain since Aug. 16.

Kuningan BPBD head Agus Mauludin said the fire had started in a bush in the Sadarehe block in Majalengka regency and had moved north to the Sanggabuana block in Kuningan or around the Setianegara climbing track.

'€œSome 75 percent of the 67 hectares of edelweiss meadow have been burned,'€ Agus told the Post on Sunday.

The head of Mt. Ciremai National Park'€™s region I management section, Hawal Widodo, meanwhile, said some hot spots had been detected in the Sanggabuana block at a height of 2,600 meters.

'€œWe have localized the fire manually by making firebreaks like ditches, which are between 2 and 5 meters in width,'€ Hawal said.

Mt. Ciremai is the highest mountain in West Java and stands 3,078 meters above sea level. The park covers over 15,000 hectares in Kuningan and Majalengka regencies.