JAKARTA – Thick smoke from Indonesia’s forest fires has grounded firefighting aircraft in Central Kalimantan for about a week, leaving crews struggling to contain blazes threatening one of the world’s best-known orang utan habitats.
Firefighters are also battling difficult swampy terrain and equipment shortages as fires spread across more than 500ha of the Tanjung Puting National Park area and surrounding parts of West Kotawaringin and Seruyan regencies, according to details that emerged following a high-level meeting chaired by President Prabowo Subianto and attended by disaster and security officials on Oct 12.
Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya disclosed the details on Oct 13, including an account by regional military commander, Major-General Zainul Arifin, who told Prabowo that visibility around the park had dropped to just 500m, preventing civilian aircraft from conducting water-bombing operations.
The fires have blanketed parts of South-east Asia in haze, disrupting flights, forcing school closures and raising public health concerns.
Offers of firefighting assistance from Singapore and Malaysia were not discussed at the meeting, according to officials.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency chief Suharyanto told the meeting that 639.23ha of land remained ablaze across six priority provinces as at Oct 12, out of nearly 130,000ha burned cumulatively.
“In Central Kalimantan in particular, water-bombing helicopters have been unable to fly for about a week because of poor visibility,” he said.
With aircraft unable to operate from Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan’s capital, and Banjarmasin in neighbouring South Kalimantan, firefighters must rely heavily on ground operations.
Weather modification flights intended to encourage rainfall and commercial services have also been affected.
According to Teddy, more than 60,000 personnel have been deployed in ground operations, extinguishing an average of more than 80% of newly burned land each day.
Read Full Article At Source