Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan (ANTARA) – Indonesia’s Deputy Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Hanif Faisol Nurofiq has asked the South Kalimantan Regional Police to patent a newly developed peatland-cooling liquid designed to combat persistent underground fires.
Nurofiq, who is coordinating forest and land fire mitigation efforts in the region, praised the initiative during a field test in Banjarbaru on Friday (Sept 4).
“This is an excellent innovation, and it should immediately receive intellectual property protection through a patent,” he said, emphasizing that local innovations must be protected to honor their inventors.
The special cooling liquid was developed by the provincial police’s forensic laboratory division (Bidlabfor) under the direction of South Kalimantan Regional Police Chief Inspector General Rosyanto Yudha Hermawan.
Nurofiq noted that the eco-friendly plant-based surfactant concentrate is highly suitable for mass production. He urged the provincial government to allocate a substantial budget to manufacture the product, enabling fire mitigation teams to deploy it on a much larger scale.
“I witnessed firsthand tonight that this concentrate formula, mixed with water at a 1-to-100 ratio, rapidly cuts off the oxygen supply to the fire. It completely extinguishes the embers burning deep within the peat soil,” he explained.
On Friday night, Nurofiq and the South Kalimantan police chief tested the invention’s effectiveness on smoldering underground fires in the peatlands of Pengayuan, Banjarbaru.
During the field test, police successfully pinpointed underground fire sources using thermal drones. They then extinguished the hidden flames by injecting the specialized liquid directly into the peat using a two-meter-long pipe.
Head of the Narcotics Sub-division at the South Kalimantan Police’s Bidlabfor Adjunct Police Commissioner (AKP) Meilia Rahma explained that when injected into the porous peat soil, the liquid breaks the oxygen chain, instantly smothering the embers and rapidly lowering the ground temperature.
“Based on our application at a different hotspot in the Pengayuan area two days ago, zero smoke has been observed as of tonight because the embers were entirely extinguished,” Rahma said.
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Translator: Firman, Uyu Liman
Editor: Bayu Prasetyo
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