REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- Indonesia's National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Lapan) detected 92 hotspots across Sumatra Island, mostly in Riau Province, on Sunday.
"This afternoon, satellites detected 92 hotspots in Sumatra, including 66 hotspots concentrated in Riau," Head of the Pekanbaru meteorological, climatology and geophysics station Slamet Riyadi stated here, Sunday.
On the previous day, Riau had a total of 49 hotspots. In Riau Province, 36 hotspots were detected in Rokan Hilir, 12 in Dumai, eight in Bengkalis, five in Rokan Hulu, two respectively in Siak and Meranti Islands, and one in Kampar District.
The Riau wildfire task force has continued to drop water bombs using helicopters, MI-8 dan MI-171, to extinguish the blaze.
The wildfire emergency status declared in June in Riau has been extended until November 30, 2016.
In the meantime, hotspots indicating forest, peatland and plantation fires have been detected in several provinces in Indonesia lately. Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, and Central Kalimantan have also declared an emergency alert status in anticipation of land and forest fires, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
"The other provinces prone to land and forest fires are South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan and North Sumatra, but they have not declared an emergency status alert," BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
Following the declaration of such an alert, the BNPB will lend assistance to regional disaster mitigation offices in the five provinces in addressing land and forest fires, he stated.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) recently led a cabinet meeting on forest fires, and passed orders for immediate action to prevent forest fires from spreading and become uncontrollable. It is predicted that forest and bush fires were more devastating in August and September, therefore, action must not be delayed to put an end to fire when they are still easier to control, Jokowi said.
He warned of potential hazards from a total of 217 hotspots detected mostly on Sumatra and Kalimantan islands lately.
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