REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SIMPANG EMPAT -- Wildfire is still burning some 20 hectares of palm oil plantation in the sub district of Nagari Sungai Aur, West Sumatra province, since Monday, a disaster mitigation official stated here on Tuesday. 

"Up until now, we have found no casualties because of the wildfire. The firemen are still struggling to stamp out the fires," the Provincial Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) chairman Try Wahluyo said in Simpang Empat city. 

Wahluyo added that the agency has not yet found the cause of the wildfire. 

"This wildfire is our second case; earlier, we had struggled to extinguish fires in about 40 hectares of palm oil plantation in the Nagari Ujung Gading subdistrict," Wahluyo remarked. 

Because of the drought and the long dry season, the agency as well as the fire brigade could not immediately stamp out the fire. 

"We have deployed around seven units of water pumps, but the fire continues to rage in the plantation. Hence now, we have decided to manually spray water in several hotspots, while at the same time digging some holes to prevent the fire spreading to the nearby areas," he explained. 

Wahluyo stated that the agency has maintained coordination with the plantation-owner, PT Agrowiratama, military, and national police to halt the fires. 

"(Although it was hard), we hope that we could immediately douse the fires," he noted, while calling on people living near the plantation to remain vigilant about any wildfires during the dry season. 

"I hope people would carefully burn their trashes. Anything can be prone to trigger wildfires during this (dry) season," he reiterated.

Wildfires and peatland fires remain major problems to some provinces in Sumatra Island. 

Apart from West Sumatra, wildfires had burnt around 69 hectares of peatlands in the Aceh province. 

Hundreds of people were struggling due to the haze and acute respiratory infections caused due to the fire.

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