BNPB Reports Ten Provinces Besieged by Forest and Land Fires

The phenomenon of forest and land fires (karhutla) has besieged dozens of districts and cities across ten Indonesian provinces during the first week of August 2026, as reported by the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) on Monday.

Head of the BNPB Disaster Data, Information and Communication Centre Abdul Muhari said in a statement in Jakarta on Monday that the affected areas stretch from Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Maluku, to Papua.

Human negligence such as waste burning, land clearing by fire, and the hot temperatures of the dry season have been reported as the dominant triggers for the emergence of hotspots in the various regions.

The BNPB Operations Control Directorate confirmed that on Java, the most severe fire occurred in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) area in East Java, with a total burned area reaching 520 hectares as of Sunday evening (9/8), resulting in the complete closure of all tourist entrances until an unspecified time.

Meanwhile outside Java, significant forest and land fire incidents struck Banggai Kepulauan Regency in Central Sulawesi covering 72.4 hectares, East Halmahera in North Maluku covering 23 hectares, and Tana Toraja in South Sulawesi covering 15 hectares.

According to Abdul, joint task force teams in all affected areas have been maximised to handle and mitigate the spread of the fires, with ground firefighting equipment, water tanker trucks, firebreaks, and aerial water bombing using helicopters all placed on standby.

To prevent the escalation of the dry hydrometeorological disaster, BNPB has strongly urged the public not to clear land by burning, not to discard cigarette butts carelessly, and not to burn waste in open areas.

The public has also been asked to use clean water sparingly and to prepare reserve water storage during the dry season, which is expected to continue until late August to September.