Forest fires in East Kalimantan spread to coal deposits

Forest fires in East Kalimantan spread to coal deposits

Rusman, The Jakarta Post/Samarinda

East Kalimantan forestry office firefighters are on high alert as
forest and cropland fires spread to coal deposits. As the
situation becomes worse by the day, the provincial administration
has increased fire watch patrols and field monitoring, and moved
in more fire-fighting equipment to fire-prone locations.

"Starting this week, our teams have been observing the
situation around the clock and carrying out fire fighting
activities at every hotspot," said the head of the Forest Fire
Management Unit at the East Kalimantan Forestry Office, Kusnadi
Katam.

"Weather conditions in East Kalimantan are hot and windy right
now. If this kind of weather persists, the forest fires could
intensify into as big a disaster as in 2001," he told The Jakarta
Post.

He added that the danger of the fires spreading rapidly was
exacerbated when the fires met with coal deposits, as had
occurred recently in the Bukit Soeharto Community Forest located
along the main highway between Balikpapan and Samarinda, as well
as in Malinau regency.

Forest fires have also broken out in conservation areas in
the Kutai National Park in East Kutai and the Talisayan protected
forest in Berau regency.

"Most of the forest fires have occurred along the main
highways between the regencies," Kusnadi said. The area destroyed
by fire thus far this season is estimated at 32 hectares.

Kusnadi said that there had been no reports of fires being
deliberately set in forest concessions. Rather, they were caused
by people engaging in land clearance. The fires had spread
rapidly in areas with coal deposits.

Based on 12 satellite photographs taken by the National
Oceanic Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) on Aug. 23, 11 hotspots
were detected in four regencies in East Kalimantan; one in Berau,
four in Kutai Kertanegara, five in East Kutai and 1 in Pasir.

The highest number of hotspots in August was recorded on Aug.
19, with 103 hotspots. No hotspots were found on Aug. 20. Twelve
hotspots were detected on Aug. 21 and 62 hotspots on Aug. 22.

The satellite also located a number of hotspots in Kalimantan.
On Aug. 21, 115 hotspots were found in West Kalimantan province,
35 in South Kalimantan province and 141 in Central Kalimantan
province. Meanwhile on Aug. 22, 35 hotspots were detected in
Central Kalimantan and 15 in South Kalimantan. None were detected
in West Kalimantan.

According to Kusnadi, the big variation in the number of
hotspots detected from day to day was due to a lack of maximum
satellite coverage. For that reason, his office had requested
regental and municipal administrations to monitor and report on
the situation on the ground.

So far, the haze from the forest fires has covered Samarinda,
Balikpapan, Kutai Kertanegara and East Kutai, but the East
Kalimantan provincial administration has yet to pronounce the
situation hazardous, and has not warned the public to use masks.
"The haze has yet to affect visibility or human health. The
situation is within the normal range," he said.

The haze has also not affected flights to and from Temindung
Airport in Samarinda. An official from the local air traffic
control, Ucok, said that pilots had been informed about the haze
covering the province, but that flights had not been affected
thus far. Flight visibility was 8 kilometers as of Tuesday.

"Flights could be disrupted if visibility was to be reduced to
between 1 and 5 kilometers. It also depends on each pilot.
Conditions are still normal at the moment," said Ucok.