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Indonesia steps up fight against haze-producing brush fires
September 24, 1997
Web posted at: 1:37 p.m. EDT (1337 GMT)JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Hundreds of Malaysian firefighters arrived in neighboring Indonesia Wednesday to help battle the massive brush fires that have sent a health-threatening haze across six countries.
An official on the Indonesian island of Sumatra said the 1,040 firefighters were rushed to three provinces there.
Malaysian C-130 aircraft also were to be used in what is known as cloud seeding, an attempt to induce rain to help clear the air. But at least some of the aircraft were grounded by the dense haze.
The Ministry of the Environment said Wednesday that the latest satellite imagery showed more than 50 hot spots, mainly in eastern and southern Sumatra and Kalimantan on Borneo.
Azwar Anas, coordinating minister for people's welfare, told reporters that the fire and haze crisis was a national disaster.
Many of the bush fires have been blamed on forestry companies, plantations and small farmers using slash-and-burn techniques to clear the land.
A forestry expert said there were growing fears that huge tracts of peat underlying the rain forests could catch fire -- resulting in a much more serious situation.
"If you get tens of thousands of tons of peat burning per hectare, it adds a whole new dimension," said Jeffrey Sayer, director-general of the Center for International Forestry Research at Bogor, near Jakarta.
There were already reports of peat catching fire, but the size of the problem was not yet known. Peat fires in some parts of the world are known to have burned for hundreds of years.
Air Pollutant Index (API): 100-200 "unhealthy" 201-300 "very unhealthy" 301-500 "hazardous" In the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur and surrounding areas the Air Pollutant Index (API) remained at about 150 on Wednesday. But in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak state on Borneo, the API was still well above the hazardous mark, at 651.
The authorities in Kuching declared an emergency Friday, and many people heeded the government's advice and stayed indoors. By Wednesday, however, many were going about their business, although many wore masks, residents said.
The emergency does not involve a curfew, but schools, most factories and offices remained closed.
Environmental organizations in Malaysia -- which is affected along with Singapore, Brunei, the southern Philippines and southern Thailand -- accused the government of not doing enough.
Health Department director Shukor Mohamed Noor said 15,000 Malaysians, most of them children and elderly, had been treated for haze-related illnesses.
The U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur said Wednesday that it was evacuating family members of diplomats on a voluntary basis to escape the smog.
The Canadian embassy was sending its staff for a week's leave in Australia on a rotating basis to give them a break from the haze.
Jakarta Bureau Chief Maria Ressa and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Smoky haze hits dangerous levels in some of Southeast Asia - September 23, 1997
- Land-clearing fires foul Malaysia's air - September 19, 1997
Related sites:
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- Malaysia Information Network - operated by Malaysian government
- Indonesia Times Online - English language daily.
- Indonesia Internet Information Center - starting point for information about Indonesia
- DKI Jakarta - official Web site of the capital city of the Republic of Indonesia
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