Four Forest and Land Fire Hotspots Still Being Extinguished in Riau

Forest and land fires in Riau Province continue to increase. As of Monday (3/8), joint teams were still extinguishing fires at four locations, with two sites each in Pelalawan Regency and Indragiri Hulu Regency. Head of the Sumatra Forest Fire Control Agency, Ferdian Krisnanto, stated that these four locations are currently the focus of extinguishing operations carried out by Manggala Agni. “We are updating the extinguishing locations currently being worked on by Manggala Agni. There are four locations in Pelalawan and Inhu,” said Ferdian on Monday (3/8). He explained that the extinguishing operations are being conducted by Manggala Agni Daops Rengat. In Pelalawan Regency, firefighting is underway in Kerumutan Village, Kerumutan District, and Mak Teduh Village, Kerumutan District, each handled by one team. Meanwhile, in Indragiri Hulu Regency, one team has been deployed to Paya Rumbai Village, Seberida District, and another team to Sungai Guntung Hilir Village, Rengat District. In addition to ground operations, the firefighting task force under the coordination of the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency has also commenced weather modification operations to increase the potential for rain and prevent the fires from spreading. “Weather modification operations are also currently being carried out. The first sortie is targeting the Pelalawan and Indragiri Hilir areas using a Cessna Caravan aircraft,” he said.