Jakarta – Forest fires in Mempawah regency, West Kalimantan, gutted a large part of a state elementary school building in Sejegi village on Saturday afternoon when the nation was celebrating its 74th Independence Day.
Head of the Mempawah Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Hermansyah said the fire reportedly originated from forest and land wildfires happening that day not far from the school building.
"The school has often been surrounded by forest and land fires. To prevent the fires approaching the building, the agency routinely monitors and guards the school," said Hermansyah on Sunday as quoted by kompas.com.
However, he said, when the fire occurred at around 3 p.m., the agency's members were not on standby at the scene.
"When the fire occurred, the team's members were not available [to extinguish the fire] as we were attending a flag ceremony," said Hermansyah.
He added that when forest or land fires occurred around the school building or elsewhere in the village, efforts to extinguish them had been frequently carried out, but the fire had never been completely put out.
"Often after the fires surrounding the school were extinguished, they reappeared because the fires had burned the inner ground leaving embers and heat buried inside," he concluded.