Firefighters have been battling blazes for weeks in Borneo and Sumatra. (AA Photo)
Indonesia is doing “everything” to fight huge forest fires, but dozens of planes and thousands of personnel are still struggling to contain them, a senior official said on Sept. 21.
Firefighters have been battling blazes for weeks in Borneo and Sumatra that have blanketed parts of the country, as well as neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, in toxic haze.
The government has deployed 64 aircraft and 54,000 personnel to the islands since last month to try and put out the fires by water bombing, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said.
“From the air to the ground, all forces continue to move. Everything is being done to extinguish the fires, reduce the impact of the smoke, and, most importantly, protect the public from the threat of forest and land fires,” he said.
“The vast size of the territory and the challenging conditions of peatlands pose serious difficulties in dealing with forest and land fires in various regions.”
Daniel Sinyor, a spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency for West Kalimantan, one of the most-affected areas, said the varied depths of the fires burning inside local peat soils was adding to the difficulty.
“Another challenge is the limited water sources available to this ground task force. In general, water sources decrease or even disappear in areas affected by the fires,” he said.
Indonesia regularly battles wildfires during the dry season, which typically runs from July to October.
