Mount Bromo in East Java suffered its second fire in a week, when a pre-wedding photoshoot’s props ignited a large wildfire last week Wednesday (September 6).
Authorities were forced to close the popular tourist destination to visitors on Wednesday, as the fire later burned 50 hectares of the Bromo savanna fields, reported thestar.com. On Thursday (September 7), firefighters were able to put out the fire in the savanna, however it had spread to a nearby Kursi Hill in the Bromo park area.
This closure was the second time the park management had closed Bromo to visitors, as authorities had previously closed several access and trekking routes on September 1 as a wildfire burned at least 660 hectares of the mountain’s forest and savanna.
Septi Eka Wardhani, an official of the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, said the couple, for their pre-wedding photoshoot, used a handheld flare which accidently ignited dry grass in the savanna, popularly known as Teletubbies Hill among tourists.
“It seems that the perpetrators ignored our warnings on fire hazards on social media,” Wardhani said in a statement, adding that the police had questioned the couple. The photographer is reported to have been charged under a 1999 Forestry Law that mandates a maximum five-year prison sentence and fine of IDR1,5 billion (R1,84 million) for negligence that leads to a forest fire.
Wardhani said the prolonged dry season was causing the prevalence of fires at the park, as it has left the Bromo savanna extremely dry and highly inflammable.
