BIG FIRE….!!!!
Oh I hate to tell a bad news, but this is what happening. Yesterday we were surprised to see the big fire not far from our post. In a rush we prepared to fight the fire, Basuki the Reforestation manager and some of the staff just jumped into the speed boat and left to the location. In rush I prepared some stuff, my own stuff and drink for everybody, fully clothes,hat and hand gloves, boots and also grabbed a pair of socks that I found out later was a different pair.
Arrived there we were surrounded by a thick smoke and we had to walk about 4 km from river side to reach the fire.
Unfortunately we were not equipped with any proper equipment because we don’t have any, except our buckets and “parang”. So when we got there we just stood still for few seconds to think what we should do. I was the only girl there with 15 men, so I couldn’t help to open my mouth and grumbling… Oh what should we do, what are we going to do now… “ But one of us had the inisiative and began the step by hitting the fire so we all moved and did the same, although I myself feel hopeless because the wind was so big and the fire approaching us so fast, but later we found a helpful way, we cleaned the dry leaves and the woods and try to put the fire in the middle and after hitting the fire we put soil as a border so if the wind blow it won’t turn the fire on again. We are happy we could stop that side but the other side untill now is still on because of the swamp area, that makes easy to burn under ground.Some people are still working on there and maybe camp there to watch out the fire not to eat more forest and our reforestation works. Hopefully rain will come soon. Ok, prayer and your support will be helpful.
I'll sent some rainclouds from Belgium to Tanjung Putting.
Good luck to all of you. Hugo (Comment this)