Sumatra forest fires relatively under control, Prabowo adds assistance

President Prabowo Subianto has ordered the addition of equipment and personnel to accelerate the extinguishing of forest and land fires (karhutla) in four provinces in Sumatra, even though the situation is relatively under control.

Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said the President on Monday reviewed the handling of forest and land fires in Riau and South Sumatra and led a coordination meeting to ensure the handling of fires in Sumatra.

“Today, he continued his journey to Sumatra Island, namely this morning he visited Riau, Pekanbaru, and then continued to Palembang, South Sumatra. Once again, this is in the context of him wanting to ensure the handling of forest and land fires occurring both on Kalimantan Island and Sumatra Island. Alhamdulillah, earlier there were two coordination meetings, the last one also connected via Zoom meeting with the Forkopimda of Jambi and Lampung,” said Prasetyo at Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport, Palembang, South Sumatra, on Monday afternoon.

From the two coordination meetings, namely in Riau in the morning and Palembang in the afternoon, the President received reports on the forest and land fire situation in four provinces in Sumatra, namely Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, and Lampung.

The ranks of the Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda) of Jambi and Lampung attended the coordination meeting online.

According to Prasetyo, the forest and land fire situation in the four provinces is relatively under control and in some areas hotspots are no longer found. However, smoke still appears, among other things due to the characteristics of peatland.

“Alhamdulillah, for Sumatra Island, in the four provinces, it is relatively under control. Some have reported that there are no more hotspots, but indeed there is still smoke that continues to appear, because there is peatland, and also earlier it was reported that there is coal in the areas, especially in Sumatra,” he said.

Even though the situation is relatively under control, the President still asked his staff to ensure the needs of the regions to extinguish the remaining hotspots.

“The President emphasised several things, and the first is regarding what is needed to handle the remaining hotspots, even though the number is small, earlier there were some amounting to only approximately 199 hectares, but additional equipment was also sent by the President,” said Prasetyo.

In the coordination meeting with regional government officials, police, and the military in the four provinces, a number of additional needs were conveyed to the President.

These needs include water-bombing helicopters, trail motorcycles, hoses, water pumps, personal protective equipment (PPE), and masks.