JAKARTA: Indonesia is stepping up efforts to contain forest and land fires in Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan, where ground teams and helicopters are being deployed to tackle fires on peatland that can continue producing smoke even after surface flames have been extinguished.
National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto said peatland fires were particularly difficult to extinguish as embers could remain beneath the surface even after flames above ground had been put out.
He said rainfall remained the most effective way to extinguish peatland fires, although there was currently little prospect of suitable rain clouds developing over West Kalimantan.
"The most effective and efficient (solution) is rain, so when there is potential for rain clouds, we will carry out weather-modification operations,” he said in a BNPB statement on Saturday (Aug 8) following an aerial inspection of firefighting operations in Kubu Raya a day earlier.
On Thursday, BNPB said West Kalimantan had three water-bombing helicopters, with two additional helicopters scheduled to be deployed over the following two days bringing the planned fleet to five, while a patrol helicopter and weather-modification aircraft were also on standby.
BNPB said 28,680 hectares of land had burned across West Kalimantan from January to June this year, exceeding the 26,703 hectares recorded throughout 2025.
Suharyanto attributed the increase in burned area to more than a month without rain and very hot weather, citing forecasts by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency that West Kalimantan would face hotter conditions and a high fire risk over the following three weeks.
Separately, BNPB said its disaster reports compiled from Friday to 7am Saturday recorded four forest and land fires affecting a combined 4.5 hectares in North Sumatra, Central Java, South Sulawesi and West Java, all of which had been extinguished. - Bernama
