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)