Indonesia: Fire burns 12 hectares of Mount Rinjani area

Panca Nugraha The Jakarta Post 10 Oct 17;

Fire engulfed about 12 hectares of land in the Mount Rinjani National Park (TNGR) in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB).

As of Monday night, some areas, particularly those on hilly terrain, were still on fire.

"The fire was first detected on Telaga hill, inside the TNGR area. It burnt about 12 hectares of forest and land in an area spanning about 1 kilometer," TNGR Agency Head Raden Agus Budi Santoso said on Monday.

The agency was quickly on the scene after it received reports about the fire on Telaga hill in Sembalun Lawang village, East Lombok, on Monday afternoon.

At least 27 firefighters were deployed to fight the blaze.

"We extinguished the fire near the village, but were unable to put it out in the steep areas," Agus said, adding that the terrain had hampered their efforts to prevent the fire from spreading.

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He said the fire was caused by local residents who were burning land. They were unable to control it and it quickly spread to the nearby forest. "We're still investigating who did the land burning in the first place." (foy/bbs)