REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- Hotspots continue to develop during the Idul Fitri celebrations in the Riau Province this year, engulfing at least 848 hectares of forest land.

"The land-based task force has reported that a total of 848 hectares of forest area have been gutted by fires. The fires continue to spread in affected areas because many sites are inaccessible, so they cannot yet be documented," Head of the Information Data Center and Public Relations of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Sutopo Purwo Nugroho stated in an electronic message to Antara here on Wednesday.

The Riau Regional Government has not yet lifted the haze alert status in the province while the joint task forces continue to carry out their tasks.

According to Sutopo, the air task force also continues to operate helicopters to drop water bombs and to modify the weather to produce artificial rain.

The efforts to put out the fires by the air task force are in tandem with the endeavors made by hundreds of personnel of the land-based task force.

The land-based task force is reinforced with 100 military personnel from the Army, 100 from the Air Force, and 500 from the National Police.

Apart from that, hundreds of personnel from the Forestry Ministry, Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), and volunteers are taking part in putting out the fires.

"However, individuals and groups of people still continue to burn bushes and forest areas, and thus the number of hotspots also continue to increase," he remarked.

Sutopo noted that after the Lebaran holidays, the personnel grouped in the task force belonging to the police and Forestry Ministry's office have resumed work to extinguish the hotspots.

The water cannon of the Indragiri Hilir Resort Police was also used to extinguish fires because of water shortage.

He claimed that the haze still blanketed several areas in Riau, which has drastically reduced visibility.

"Haze still covers Kota Bumi, so the visibility is only about two kilometers in the morning," Sutopo pointed out.

Sutopo emphasized that the BNPB Head Syamsul Maarif has appealed to the governor, the district heads, and mayor to intensively lead the efforts to put out the fires, although the Idul Fitri holidays are still on.

The United States NOAA18 satellite, which is operated by Singapore, has detected 133 hotspots in Sumatra Island.

As many as 85 hotspots were found in Riau Province.

"The number of hotspots is increasing as compared to the other day when they numbered less than a hundred," Riau Head of Provincial Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Said Saqlul Amri noted through a press release received here on Tuesday.

During 2014, land and bush fires have burnt more than 25 thousand hectares of land in several districts of Riau Province.

As part of law enforcement measures, the Indonesian police have named 189 suspects in Riau for allegedly setting off fires.

During the period between January until the end of June this year, NOAA18 had detected 8,513 hotspots throughout Indonesia, Agriculture Minister Suswono remarked in Jakarta on Friday (July 11).

"The satellite detected 1,917 hotspots in forest areas, 1,579 hotspots in plantation areas, and 5,017 hotspots were found in mountainous areas," Suswono reported.

Based on the hotspots detected by the satellite, the Ministry of Agriculture stated that 18,673.40 hectares of forest and land areas have been burnt as a result of forest fires in Indonesia.

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