Local residents watch burning savanna at the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park from a distance in Lumajang, East Java, on Sep. 7, 2023. - Antara
JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): A pre-wedding photoshoot that went wrong has ignited a large wildfire in Mount Bromo in East Java that has burned since Wednesday (Sept 6), forcing authorities to close the popular tourist destination to visitors.
Septi Eka Wardhani, an official with the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, said the couple used a handheld flare for their pre-wedding photoshoot. This accidentally ignited dry grass in the savanna of the Bromo area, popularly known among tourists as Bukit Teletubbies (Teletubbies Hill).
A video showing a group of people allegedly causing the fire made the rounds in social media recently.
The video appeared to show four men and a woman bringing tripods, cameras and backpacks and chatting while hanging around a blazing savanna near a sign for Teletubbies Hill.
“It seems that the perpetrators ignored our warnings on fire hazards on social media,” Septi said in a statement, adding that the police had questioned the couple.
On Thursday evening, the police announced that they had named AP, the 41-year-old wedding organiser, as a suspect in the case.
The suspect allegedly did not obtain a permit to enter the conservation area in Bromo. AP also allegedly brought five flares for the pre-wedding photoshoot. One of them caused a spark that later burned 50 hectares of the Bromo savanna field, Probolinggo Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Wisnu Wardana said as reported by kompas.id.
Investigators charged AP with violating the Job Creation Law, which also carries a revision to the 1999 Forestry Law which mandates a maximum five-year prison sentence and a fine of Rp 1.5 billion (US$97,746) for any individual found guilty of negligence that leads to a forest fire.
The national park management closed Mount Bromo from 10pm on Wednesday to visitors until further notice as authorities scrambled to put out the fire.
As of Thursday afternoon, the authorities had put out the fire that broke out at the Teletubbies Hill. But firefighters are still trying to put out the fire spreading to a nearby Kursi Hill in the Bromo park area.
The latest closure was the second time the park management had closed Bromo for visitors. Authorities had previously closed several access and trekking routes on Sept 1 as a wildfire burned at least 660 hectares of the mountain’s forest and savanna.
Bromo authorities reopened the park on Tuesday evening, before eventually closing it again the following day. Septi of the national park management cited the prolonged dry season as a reason for the fires, as it has left the Bromo savanna extremely dry and flammable.
