Forest Fires Hit Five Indonesian Provinces, Floods Affect Thousands of Households in North Sumatra
JAKARTA: Forest and land fires have been reported in five Indonesian provinces, affecting a total area of 1,410 hectares, while floods have struck thousands of households in North Sumatra, prompting continued disaster response operations across the country.
Acting Head of the Data, Information and Disaster Communication Centre at Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Berton Panjaitan, said South Papua recorded the largest area covered by firefighting operations at 502 hectares, based on data as of 7 am local time on Friday.
This was followed by Central Sulawesi (295 hectares), Southeast Sulawesi (257 hectares), Maluku (182 hectares) and East Kalimantan (174 hectares).
“The pattern of fires has changed significantly. Previously, fires were reported in several areas of Sumatra and Kalimantan, but today we are seeing fires in East Kalimantan, Central and Southeast Sulawesi, Maluku and South Papua,” he said during a video briefing on Friday.
Berton said a total of 58 aircraft remained deployed for firefighting operations, comprising 23 aircraft for patrols, monitoring and weather modification operations, as well as 35 water-bombing helicopters.
He said 23,900 kilogrammes of cloud-seeding materials, including salt and dry ice, had been used in Kalimantan and South Sumatra.
According to him, unhealthy air quality readings were recorded in Sendawar, West Kutai Regency, as well as at three monitoring stations in Nusantara, Indonesia’s new capital in East Kalimantan.
In a separate development, Berton said floods in North Sumatra had affected 7,615 households.
He said seven provinces, namely Aceh, Lampung, Bengkulu, Riau, West Sumatra, South Sumatra and North Sumatra, had been placed on heightened alert due to the risk of heavy to very heavy rainfall.
Weather forecasts also indicated the possibility of moderate to heavy rainfall in several areas of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Java, Bali, Maluku, North Maluku, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara and Papua.
BERNAMA