Prabowo Urges Public to Avoid Activities Triggering Forest Fires Amid El Niño

State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi has revealed the reason President Prabowo Subianto personally inspected the handling of forest and land fires (karhutla) in Kalimantan. Prabowo, according to Pras, wanted to directly check on the firefighting efforts.

“He wanted to monitor first-hand the process of handling the forest and land fires, which this year coincides with a fairly extreme or fairly dry El Niño,” Pras told reporters at Tjilik Riwut Airport, Central Kalimantan, on Saturday (22/8/2026).

During visits to Pontianak, West Kalimantan, and Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Prabowo held limited meetings on fire handling with relevant regional officials. Prabowo received reports and identified needs still required for extinguishing hotspots.

Pras said several matters were decided directly by Prabowo, including the addition of equipment such as water bombing helicopters, water pumps, and borehole pumps.

“All the requirements needed in the field, based on the supplies we have, were directly decided by the President to be pushed forward, including the dispatch of additional tanker trucks and fire engines,” Pras said.

Prabowo also reminded regional governments to promptly assist affected communities. Furthermore, Prabowo expressed appreciation for all parties working hard to tackle the forest and land fires.

“He also conveyed his gratitude to all ranks who have worked extraordinarily hard day and night, battling to extinguish the fires, from the TNI, Polri, BNPB, BMKG, as well as many volunteers, and the Manggala Agni from the Ministry of Forestry were also involved. He expressed his highest appreciation and respect to all those working hard to extinguish these forest and land fires,” he said.

In addition, Prabowo reminded all parties not to tire of urging the public to avoid activities that could trigger hotspots. Not only is it dangerous, but it can also have major consequences that harm the public.

“Education for our communities must reach the lowest level, once again to avoid activities that could potentially cause fires, which in conditions like now would be very dangerous because they could grow and harm us all,” he said.