TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of West Nusa Tenggara Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), Muhammad Rum, said that there were no tourists that got stuck in Mount Rinjani when Mount Barujari, known as the child of Rinjani, erupted on Tuesday, September 27, 2016.
Rum estimated that around 100 tourists are still in the vicinity of Mount Barujari. He assured all visitors are safe. “Some of the visitors have climbed down, some are still there, enjoying [the nature]. Nobody got stuck up there; this news must be cleared,” he said, on Wednesday, September 28, 2016.
According to him, the BPBD team and other joint agencies have warned the visitors to go down immediately as the status of Mount Barujari improved from ‘Normal’ to ‘Level II Alert’.
Rum explained the joint team are already at the evacuation spot at the monitoring post, 3 kilometers away from the Mount Barujari.”We have warned the them to climbed down because the status has changed to ‘Alert’. The evacuation route is also safe and can be passed easily,” he said.
According to Rum, on September 25, 2016, there were 86 foreign tourists and 30 local tourists. On September 26, 2016, there were 136 foreign tourists and 18 domestic tourists. Meanwhile, on September 27, there were 112 foreign tourists and 8 local tourists.
Mount Barujari has erupted on Tuesday, September 27, 2016, around 2.00 p.m. local time. The eruption reached the heights of 2.000 meters. The volcanic ashes headed southwest. Rum is certain the eruption will not have a fatal effect. “The volcanic ashes did not descend to the ground, but crossed over to Denpasar,” he said.
According to the data collected by Tempo, the watch post has recommended on Tuesday at 2 p.m. that the area in the radius of 3 kilometer of Mount Barujari must be sterilized. Nobody is allowed to enter the area of Lake Segara Anak. As of today, volcanic ash has not been detected.
Throughout 2016, Mount Barujari has erupted several times. On August 1, 2016, the mountain had erupted for three times in a day, which caused the Lombok International Airport and Ngurah Rai International Airport to be shut down. The eruption was caused by an earthquake in Northwest of Dompu. Mount Barujari was also erupted last July.
ARKHELAUS W.
