Indonesia wildfire fuelled by El Niño razes almost 300 homes

Original article by Jonathan Watts

A forest fire on Indonesia’s Sumatra island fuelled by El Niño has razed nearly 300 homes, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate, an official has said, as the country battles devastating blazes and haze.

Residents first spotted the fire approaching their village in Bangka Belitung province on Saturday and tried to put it out themselves with portable water pumps, said the head of South Bangka regency, Riza Herdavid.

“They thought it was taken care of. But it’s peatland, and there was still a fire smouldering underneath. So, when they assumed it was over, the wind shifted and quickly drove the fire toward the settlement.”

The local disaster agency said nearly 1,000 people had fled the village.

“My house is gone,” said Leni, a 55-year-old woman staying at a shelter with her family.

“There’s nothing left. I could only save myself and take my kids with me … I panicked and didn’t have the time to grab anything.”

Riza said the village had been built on what used to be peatland in a protected area, but which was converted into a housing complex last year.

This year’s fires have created severe haze locally, with tens of thousands of cases of respiratory illnesses, and caused increased air pollution in Singapore and Malaysia.

Indonesia is among the countries worst affected by heat, drought and fire in El Niño years. The government says the current conditions are the worst in a decade.

Analysts indicate the area burned and emissions are on track to match the record blazes of 2015, which charred an area of 2.6m hectares and generated 333 megatonnes of carbon.

Wildlife has also been devastated as fires have spread around the country.

Earlier this week, a group of eight orangutans had to be relocated to the Batu Nyambu protected forest by car and boat. At least 46 of the critically endangered primates have been rescued since August, according to the West Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency.

How many have been killed is unclear, but experts have warned the toll is likely to be huge. The International Union for Conservation of Nature said fire had affected habitats containing 52% of Borneo’s orangutan population.

Even when the blazes are finally extinguished, many animals will face shortages of habitat, prey and water as a result of fire damage and drought.

Silvered langurs, long-tailed macaques and proboscis monkeys have been found dead in the ashes or by dried-up ponds. Elephants, gibbons, pangolins and turtles are also among the species likely to be affected.

The authorities have warned the fires could continue until November, when the El Niño is expected to peak.

Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, ordered the government on Monday to mobilise maximum efforts to extinguish wildfires that have been raging for three months in some places.

Thick smoke in a province of Borneo has grounded water-bombing aircraft, according to the disaster agency. The cabinet secretary, Teddy Indra Wijaya, said the government had deployed more than 60,000 personnel on the ground.

• Agence-France Presse contributed to this report