BPBD Meranti Use Sea Water to Extinguish Forest and Land Fire in Insit Village, Dry Water Source.

News24xx.com - Forest and land fires (Karhutla) that occurred in the village of Insit, Tebing Tinggi Barat District, have been going on for almost two weeks. Even though the cooling had already been done, due to strong winds, the fire turned on again, making the water supply thinner.

Kalaksa Meranti Islands Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Edy Afrizal said, this made his party from the Meranti Islands BPBD forced to use sea water.

"We've had time to do cooling, we also have a maximum of blackout efforts, starting from morning, until night. But the supply of water sources that we take at this time is almost dry, for that we are forced to use sea water," said Tuesday (20 / 8/2019).

Edy said blackouts that use sea water can only be done until noon because water conditions are rising. While in the afternoon, this cannot be done considering the receding sea surface conditions which cause the distance between the shoreline and sea water to be very far.

"The water supply at the fire location is dry. This fire has happened again because we are inferior to water, because while waiting for the water supply to arrive, the fire continues to burn," explained Edy.

However, Edy said there were many risks when extinguishing using sea water, in addition to causing the fire truck's tank to rust, it could also cause the engine to become damaged.

"This is very risky. In addition to the rust tank, the engine can also be damaged, we are very forced to do this. Later when finished, we just clean and wash the inside of the damkar fleet tank using clean water," he said.