‘I could only stand and watch’: Indonesian guide recalls trying to save S’poreans on Mount Dukono

TOBELO, North Halmahera – At 7.40am on May 8, with the grey crater of Mount Dukono stretching before him, Mr Reza Selang started flying his drone and recording what he thought would be an ordinary video.

The volcano, on the remote island of Halmahera in eastern Indonesia, looked quiet. For days, he had been told there had been no unusual activity. His group of climbers from Singapore had spent the night near the summit after trekking up the mountain the day before.

A minute later, at 7.41am, Mount Dukono erupted.

Rocks and burning debris shot into the air and rained down across the crater rim.

“Usually, it only releases smoke,” Mr Reza, 35, told The Straits Times in his first media interview since the eruption. “But this time, it threw out material.”

Mr Reza, a mountain guide from Ternate, was operating a drone from slightly lower down the slope when the eruption began.

He sent the drone towards the summit to see whether anyone was still near the crater.

On the screen, he saw one of the Singaporean climbers lying motionless on the ground.

Another Singaporean, the organiser of the expedition, had already rushed back to the crater after seeing his friend collapse. Mr Reza ran uphill to join him, scrambling through what he described as a rain of volcanic rocks.

The organiser reached the injured climber first and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The man regained consciousness, but he could not stand.

“He was conscious, but he could not move,” Mr Reza said.

Working together, the two men tried to drag him away from the crater.

Mr Reza gripped the injured climber’s legs, while the organiser held his upper body. Underneath them, the volcanic rocks were so hot that they burned through Mr Reza’s trousers.

“That is why my legs were burned,” he said, showing the bandages on the back of both legs.

Then, a large boulder slammed into the slope, bounced towards them and pinned both Singaporeans between rocks. Unable to move them, Mr Reza was forced to leave them behind and run down the mountain to safety.

“I could only stand there and watch,” Mr Reza said, tears filling his eyes. “I had no strength left to move the rocks.”

A year in the making

The tragedy unfolded at the end of a journey that had been planned with care.

Almost a year earlier, in mid-2025, Mr Reza received a message from the Singaporean organiser, whom he had not met before.

The man said he ran a travel community in Singapore and wanted to bring a group to North Maluku, a province in eastern Indonesia better known for cloves and volcanoes than international tourism.

He had become fascinated by Mount Dukono after watching videos online of its near-constant eruptions. “He wanted to go to Dukono and Gamkonora and travel here,” Mr Reza said, referring also to Mount Gamkonora.

“He had a travel community in Singapore and wanted to know whether I could prepare their journey here.” said Mr Reza, who agreed to organise the expedition.

Over the next year, the two men discussed routes, prices, equipment and emergency arrangements.

Mr Reza, a former entrepreneur who became a full-time guide in 2023, drafted a formal contract that set out the itinerary, listed the gear each participant had to bring, and included force majeure clauses.

Each climber paid 13 million rupiah (about S$1,000). “It was planned from last year,” he said. “The two of us planned it.”

Tragedy struck

The group arrived in North Maluku on April 30 and followed the itinerary that had been agreed upon months earlier.

Before the final climb, Mr Reza said he checked with a local guide from the village at the foot of Mount Dukono and asked whether the volcano had shown any recent activity.

“He said there had been no activity at all,” Mr Reza said.

On May 7, the group began hiking at about 1pm, and made camp at around 5pm, 2km from the summit.

The next morning, as they approached the summit, Mr Reza gave a brief warning.

“I told them, do not stay too long. Take your photos and go straight down.”

Only later, after he had been taken to hospital and questioned overnight by police, did Mr Reza learn that Indonesia’s volcanology agency had issued an advisory on April 17 temporarily banning climbs on Mount Dukono because of increased volcanic activity.

Mr Reza said neither the local guide nor anyone in the village had told him that the mountain was off limits.

“I had no idea,” he said.

Under police scrutiny

After descending the mountain, Mr Reza said he was taken to the hospital for treatment for the burns on his legs.

“From the hospital, they took me straight to the police station,” he said.

He was questioned overnight at the North Halmahera district police headquarters in Tobelo, and released only on the afternoon of May 9.

The investigation is continuing, and Mr Reza said police instructed him to remain available for further questioning.

“My phone has to stay on and I still have to go through the process,” he said.

Even as he recovers from the burns and waits to hear whether he will face legal consequences, Mr Reza said he remains haunted by the memory of the moment he was forced to leave the two Singaporeans behind.

“I do not know what to say. I still cannot believe that this happened.”