Siak, Feb 21 (Antarariau.com) - The district administration of Siak, Riau, has asked for the reactivation of the Forest and Bush Fire Post Command (Posko) as forest fires began to broke out in certain areas in the regency.
"Posko should have been active at the level of regency so is in the sub-district and village areas equipped with telephones that could be contacted any time," Acting Regent of Siak Alfedri said here on Wednesday.
He said the regional authorities should be aware of the threat of forest fires with the increase in the air temperature indicating the start of dry season.
Severall hot spots have been detected in a number of sub-districts . The dry season is feared to last until March, he said.
According to the Meteorology and Geophysics office, dry season would began from mid February until March , to begin again in early May to last until July this year.
"So far seven hot spots have been detected in the regency of Siak. Earlier bush fire broke out in the village of Penyengat, Sungai Apit. Fortunately, the fire could be put out by a joint team of fire fighters before it spread," he said.
Alfedri, therefore, asked for immediate coordination between related agencies to monitor any threat of fires in all areas from rural up to district levels.
"The public should be involved in the efforts to prevent bush or forest fires from spreading and farmers should not use fire to open new farm lands ," he said.
Reports said earlier , the Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBD) of the city of Dumai in Riau began to be busy in putting out fires ravaging 20 hectares of forests and farmlands in the area of Tanjung Penyembal.
The BPBD secretary Muhammad Ridho said the oil palm plantation had been ravaged by fire for several days as a result of extremely hot dry days and other causes not yet identified.
He said in January, BPBD succeeded in putting out fire in the sub-district of Sungai Sembilan Dumai, but fire began to break out again in the peat land.
Almost every year, forest and bush fires have caused problem in the regions sending haze of smokes as far as neighboring countries Malaysia and Singapore. **
Siak Bracing Itself From Forest and Bush Fires
