Antara, Balikpapan – The Balikpapan Station of the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) detected 25 hotspots in East Kalimantan Province on Friday, August 25, 2023. Related parties are advised to take immediate action to prevent the fire from spreading.

"A total of 25 hotspots were monitored today from 01:00 to 17:00 WITA (central Indonesian time)," the BMKG Balikpapan coordinator Diyan Novrida as quoted from Antara, on Friday.

Hotspots are used as indicators of forest or land fires in areas with a relatively high temperature compared to the surrounding temperature.

Therefore, he appealed to all related parties and people to remind each other not to start fires and not to throw cigarette butts recklessly either on land or in dry forests.

The 25 hotspots have been reported to concerned parties, including the Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) at both the provincial and local district levels for further action.

Diyan explained that the 25 hotspots were spread across four districts, namely Paser Regency (four spots), West Kutai (three spots), East Kutai (six spots), and Berau Regency (12 spots).

Specifically, 12 hotspots were found in three sub-districts of Berau, viz. Gunung Tabur (three spots), Pulau Derawan (four spots), and Segah District (five spots).

The three monitored hotspots in West Kutai were spread over two sub-districts, namely Dilangputi (one spot) and Muara Pahu (two spots). In East Kutai Regency, the hotspots are located in North Sangatta (one spot), Kaubun (two spots), and Bengalon sub-district (three spots).

"In Paser Regency, four hotspots are detected in two sub-districts. Three hotspots in Batu Sopang and one spot in Muara Samu," Diyan outlined.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1764202/bmkg-detects-25-hotpots-in-4-regencies-of-east-kalimanta