Workers struggle to fight forest fires

Workers struggle to fight forest fires

Agencies, Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur

Government workers struggled on Thursday to contain fires in central Sumatra that have shrouded large parts of neighboring Malaysia in thick white haze.

Forest fires and blazes set by local farmers were burning out of control in four provinces, said Firman, an official with the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), identifying more than 150 hotspots.

The sky was dark in parts of central Sumatra, but strong winds have for the last three days carried much of the smoke across the Malacca Straits and into Malaysia, he told AP.

"We are very sorry about this," said Firman, who goes by only one name.

Workers have been focusing most of their attention on the hardest hit province Riau, said Firman. The other blazes were in the provinces of North Sumatra, Jambi and Kalimantan.

Forests have been razed in several districts of Kalimantan, said Zainul Arifin, a local Ministry of Forestry official. He said many of the fires were lit by farmers to clear land.

Forest fires often break out in the region during dry spells because of illegal land-clearing fires or carelessly discarded cigarettes.

Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia and Indonesia experienced theirs worst air quality levels in 1997, when brush fires in Indonesia destroyed some 10 million hectares of vegetation, cloaking much of Southeast Asia with haze.

Meanwhile, Malaysians were advised on Thursday to stay indoors while hospitals are on the alert for health problems after air quality was declared unhealthy as a haze cloaked Malaysia's capital and surrounding areas.

"Try to stay indoors as much as you can," Health Department director-general Ismail Merican told the Bernama news agency.

All government hospitals and clinics have been directed to be on the alert for an increase in respiratory problems, coughs, sore throats and eye irritations, The New Straits Times reported.

Kuala Lumpur and four surrounding areas including the administrative center Putrajaya were declared unhealthy Wednesday, as well as regions in the neighboring southern states of Negeri Sembilan and Malacca.

Strenuous activity outside would be unhealthy for most people, especially for those with respiratory problems like asthma and allergies, authorities said.

However, the Department of Environment said the hazy conditions had partially eased on Thursday.

"The situation has improved. The air quality has improved, all of our stations around the country are recording 'good' or moderate' air quality," its deputy-director general Lee Heng Keng told AFP.