‘Truly scared’: Indonesian firefighters struggle to contain Borneo blazes as haze chokes communities
Indonesian firefighters in Borneo are struggling to contain severe peatland fires exacerbated by El Nino and climate change. Limited resources and water shortages are hindering their efforts to protect residential areas from the encroaching smoke and flames.
Why it matters
The fires represent a critical intersection of climate change, environmental degradation, and public health crises in Southeast Asia.
PONTIANAK, Sept 7 — Toiling around the clock, haggard Indonesian firefighters on Borneo island cannot keep up with the blazes devouring landscapes and shrouding communities in a cloying haze.
They are fighting a perilous battle with limited weapons against fires blamed in part on a stronger-than-usual episode of the El Nino climate phenomenon parching Southeast Asia.
Experts also blame climate change, decades of forest degradation and slash-and-burn land clearing practices that have changed the naturally fire-resistant landscape.
“We are exhausted. Sometimes we carry out firefighting until dawn. Sometimes we don’t sleep,” said Sampe Ritonga, fire chief for Sintang regency.
“Our facilities and infrastructure for firefighting are very limited,” he told AFP, standing on the smouldering embers of a peatland fire separated from a residential settlement by a narrow dirt road.
Behind him, veiled by the haze, the sun appeared as an eerie, rust-coloured ball in the brown-grey sky.
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