One killed, 17 villagers trapped in forest fire

One killed, 17 villagers trapped in forest fire

JAKARTA (JP): A forest fire has killed one teenager, injured
two women and trapped 17 others in Wanim village, Jayawijaya
regency, Irian Jaya, Antara reported yesterday.

The news agency said the incident took place Wednesday. The
injured women were evacuated and taken to the hospital in Wamena,
the capital of the regency. As of yesterday afternoon, however,
the fate of the trapped villagers was still not known.

Antara did not elaborate on how the incident happened.

Regent JB Wenas, who visited the remote village yesterday,
told reporters in Wamena that locals were continuing to search
for the 17 villagers.

Wenas said that forest fires, that have ravaged areas near the
village for the past two months, have been spreading because of
the strong wind blowing across the region.

"Not only have the fires destroyed houses, but destroyed
farmlands as well, causing villagers to lose their food sources,"
Wenas was quoted as saying.

Fires have ravaged hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest
in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java and Irian Jaya. However, the
teenager's death was the first reported due to the fires.

Six other deaths have been reported over the past month but
they were a result of severe haze pollution caused by the forest
fires. Twenty million other people in Indonesia and several
neighboring countries are reportedly facing respiratory problems
due to the haze.

The government has orchestrated concerted efforts to combat
fires from the ground and from the air with some international
assistance and local volunteers.

Malaysia, for instance, sent 1,078 firefighters. They returned
home yesterday after helping to extinguish forest fires in the
provinces of Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra for 23 days.

Hundreds of thousands of protective respiratory masks and
other humanitarian relief has been dispatched either by the
government, non-governmental organizations or international
communities to the worst-hit areas.

Yesterday, for instance, Taiwan sent 100,000 protective masks.
Its business community donated 20,000 kilograms of rice to
Indonesia, according to the Taipei Economic and Trade Office
Information Division.

It said the donations would be received today by the chairman
of the National Disaster Management Coordinating Board Azwar
Anas, who is also the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare.

The Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) said that
as of Wednesday several towns in eight provinces in Sumatra and
Kalimantan were still covered by thick haze.

The airports of Sultan Taha in Jambi, Simpang Tiga in Riau,
Tabing in Padang, Sultan M. Baddarudin in Palembang, Padang
Kamiling in Bengkulu and Tjilik Riwut in Palangkaraya were still
closed due to poor visibility, the agency said.

It said the number of hot spots, or fire locations, increased
overnight from 23 to 53 according to the satellite images
interpreted by the United States' National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.

The agency also said that slight haze was still covering other
parts of Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South
Kalimantan, West Java and neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.

It said the "dominant" wind was blowing westerly, toward the
Indian Ocean.

Food

In Jayawijaya regency in Irian Jaya, Wenas told Antara
yesterday that many villagers in remote areas in the mountainous
regency faced food shortages.

He said worsening haze had hampered the planned airlift of
relief to Baliem valley, where many villages were suffering from
a lack of food.

Two aircraft, one provided by the Mission Fellowship Aviation
and another by the Advent Christian foundation, along with a
helicopter provided by the PT Freeport Indonesia mining company
were already operating in Wamena to dispatch relief.

Three hundred and ninety-eight malnourished people have died
of malaria and cholera in Jayawijaya. In Merauke regency in the
southern part of the province, 23 people have died for the same
reason.

Twenty-four other tribespeople in Puncakjaya regency have also
died, bringing the number of drought-related deaths in the Irian
Jaya province to 445.

Wenas warned the death toll could rise as the staple yam crop
could not be harvested for at least another eight months.

About 150 people in the regency are suffering from severe
diarrhea, Antara reported. (aan)