Series of EmergencyNet News Reports on the Indonesia Fire/Environmental Disaster
ERRI EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT
EmergencyNet NEWS Service Sunday, September 21, 1997 Vol. 1 - 264
FIRE EMERGENCY IN INDONESIA
By Jeremy Zakis, ERRI Asia and Pacific Newsdesk
JAKARTA, INDONESIA (EmergencyNet News) - Indonesian fire
officials said on Sunday they had identified 167 hot spots from
blazes across the sprawling archipelago that were contributing to
the choking smoke haze blanketing parts of Southeast Asia.
"Forest fires are still on. The fires have hit more than
80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) throughout the country,"
said an official of the coordinating team for land and fires
control. Concerns are being raised that forest companies might be
stepping up their slash- and-burn fires to clear land before the
government fully clamps down on such practise.
Slash-and-burn clearing by forest and plantation companies is
believed to have been a major cause of the fires that have caused
health alarms in Indonesia and neighbouring Singapore and
Malaysia, affecting millions of people.
Singapore will set up emergency medical centres in public housing
estates if the choking smog from Indonesia reaches dangerous
levels, the environment minister has said.
Malaysia's nearby Sarawak state on Friday declared an emergency
when its air pollutant index exceeded safe levels, forcing the
government to shut down virtually all activity. Malaysia will
also send up to 400 firefighters to help battle the blazes in
Indonesia, Mohamed said.
ERRI EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT
EmergencyNet NEWS Service Friday, October 3, 1997 Vol. 1 - 276
ASIA AND PACIFIC REPORT
SINGAPORE (EmergencyNet News) - The smog in Singapore thickened
on Thursday and the government said outdoor work could be stopped
if it gets really bad. Poor visibility at Indonesian airports
also forced several flight cancellations.
The smoke from Indonesian bush fires made Singapore's air
unhealthy. At 5 p.m. (0900 GMT), the Pollutants Standard Index
(PSI) which measures air quality was at 169, up from 90 at 8 a.m.
(midnight GMT). Anything over 101 is deemed unhealthy and the
government told the elderly and ailing to reduce their
activities, especially outside.
In Indonesia a late wind shift today saved Indonesia's capital,
Jakarta, from the choking haze and rain began to cleanse skies
over some other parts the nation. "The weather is starting
to improve, but slowly," a weather forecaster with the
Meteorological and Geophysics Agency. A weather expert in
neighbouring Australia, however, predicted that lasting relief
from the haze was still some way off.
"Logically, you wouldn't expect probably much (rain) until
the end of October," Keith Coles of the Australian Bureau of
Meteorology said in Canberra. "It may even be delayed after
that."
ERRI EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT
EmergencyNet NEWS Service Friday, October 17, 1997 Vol. 1 - 290
ESR CLOSE UP
INDONESIAN FOREST FIRES ...
By Jeremy Zakis, ERRI Asia and Pacific Newsdesk
JAKARTA, INDONESIA (EmergencyNet News) - Haze has combined with
smog to blanket Indonesia's capital Wednesday as forest and scrub
fires continued to rage across the country. On most days
prevailing winds stops it from enveloping the city of 11.5
million people. But now it has also drifted over neighboring
Malaysia, Brunei, southern Thailand and parts of the Philippines.
Health officials warn that the lives of millions of people have
been threatened.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said satellite images
showed that fires were burning on the islands of Kalimantan,
Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi, and in Irian Jaya, the western half
of New Guinea.
The exact number of fires had not been determined. However,
earlier this week, officials counted at least 62 blazes. The
agency also said at least eight airports in Sumatra and
Kalimantan, the Indonesia portion of Borneo, were closed because
of poor visibility.
Jambi airport, 600 kilometers (370 miles) northwest of Jakarta,
was worst affected as visibility was cut to about 50 meters.
UN experts, on a two-week fact finding mission to the region, say
the number of fires is declining.
"In terms of numbers of fires, we're over the peak. There
has been a definite decrease, especially in the amount of larger
fires," Gerhard Pitman-Cramer, Department of Humanitarian
Affairs' relief coordination branch chief said.
His remarks appeared to contradict information from satellite
photos which detected 62 major blazes by late Sunday, up from 40
at the end of last week, according to the national coordination
center for ground fire control in Jakarta.
Pitman-Cramer said the haze made it 'very difficult to get
accurate satellite imagery'. "As soon as the haze moves from
some areas, you can identify the hotspots, but if the next day
the haze is over the same area, you can't see it any more, "
he said.
Most of the fires have been deliberately lit by plantation owners
and timber companies wanting to clear land cheaply. Normally,
fires are doused by monsoon rains, but seasonal downpours have
been delayed this year by El Nino, an abnormal weather pattern
over the Pacific Ocean.
Lack of rain has also caused rice harvests to fail in many areas
and the drought, being the worst in 50 years, has caused famine
and disease in some places.
Thousands of firefighters from Indonesia and neighboring Malaysia
have been trying to put the fires out. More than a dozen other
countries have provided assistance or offered aid.
"I don't believe the fire-fighting efforts will extinguish
the fires. Only sufficient rain will be able to bring an end to
the problem," Nabiel Makarim, deputy head of pollution
control at the Environmental Impact Management Agency, was quoted
by an Indonesian Newspaper as saying.
In a related matter, one person was killed and three others
injured by a fire raging through a forest in the eastern
Indonesia province of Irian Jaya. According to news reports, 17
others were trapped by the blaze.
Rescue personnel are said to be searching for the 17 people
reportedly trapped in the fires, which have spread due to strong
wind. Blazes continue to burn through forests and bushland in the
Indonesian provinces of Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Java.
Government officials have said that the fires have burned at
least 518,900 acres of forest and bushland in the country. Other
unofficial estimates say that a total of 4.2 million acres of
forest have been destroyed. Three C-130 Hercules planes from the
United States are expected to arrive Friday to assist
firefighters.
(c) Copyright-EmergencyNet News Service, 1997. All rights
reserved. Redistribution without permission is prohibited.
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