Forest firefighting with water bombers bears fruit
Forest firefighting with water bombers bears fruit
JAKARTA (JP): With assistance from an international
contingent, signs began to emerge yesterday that firefighters
were gaining an upper hand in the fight against the raging brush
and forest fires.
Two Australian water bombers dropped at least 57,000 liters of
fire suppressant foam on several hot spots yesterday to
extinguish brush and forest fires in Central Lampung.
"Water bombing has had an immediate impact and has stopped the
fires spreading further into plantations and toward local
villages," said Andrew Lawson, the commander of the bomber team.
In its first day of operations on Wednesday, the 15-man
Australian fire fighting team dropped 44,000 liters of foam.
But according to Antara, poor coordination between the team
and local authorities lessened the effectiveness of the
operation.
Local authorities were unable to provide accurate data on the
hot spots and the pilots were forced to find the locations on
their own.
"Until now we have not received any satellite data on the hot
spots," explained Irham Jafar, the head of Lampung's fire
fighting team.
Meanwhile, in Padang, West Sumatra rain brought slight relief
but it was still not enough to clear the haze.
"The visibility level is still between 1,800 and 2,000
meters," local meteorology and geophysics officials said.
In Pekanbaru, Riau, more than 1,000 Malaysian volunteers are
ready to return home after fighting fires in Indonesia for two
weeks.
Malaysia's consul in Pekanbaru, Zulkifli Yaacob, said the
target assigned to them had been achieved.
"They are now still at their individual posts because they
haven't yet received permission from either the Malaysian or
Indonesian government to leave Sumatra," he said.
Relief operations in Jambi continued yesterday as the
Indonesian Red Cross handed over 40,000 masks, 400 grams of honey
and 300 boxes of medicine to the provincial administration.
The province has been one of the hardest hit by severe haze as
a result of the widespread fires.
The improving situation on the ground has also reportedly
prompted Jakarta to decline a further outpouring of assistance.
Britain has scrapped its plan to send two reconnaissance
aircraft to help pinpoint the fires, defense officials said
Wednesday.
"Indonesia has told us they have made substantial progress in
fighting the fires and that therefore our offer was deemed to be
no longer necessary," a ministry of defense spokesman was quoted
as saying by Reuters.
Britain had fitted two Canberra PR9 planes with special
infrared equipment that can "see" through cloud and smoke. The
planes will now remain in Britain.
Meanwhile, the haze that has persisted in neighboring
Singapore and Malaysia has not only affected people but also
their pets.
Singapore's Tiong Bahru Road, famous for its birds, has been
dubiously quiet. The usual chirping of birds can no longer be
heard.
"My three birds have been very lethargic and they just sit
there now and don't make a sound," DPA quoted bird-lover Chew
Teng San as saying.
Pet owners in smog-shrouded Singapore and Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, have reported that their dogs and cats are sneezing and
suffering from abnormal eye and nose discharges because of the
air pollution. (prb)