REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PANGKALPINANG -- The Terra and Aqua Satellites detected 48 hotspots of forest and plantation fires in Bangka Belitung Province, on Sunday.
"Most of the hotspots, or 27 of them, are detected in South Bangka District," Evi Diana of the Pangkalpinang meteorology office, said.
Of the 27 hotspots in South Bangka, three in Payung sub-district, 11 in Simpang Rimba, five in Air Gegas, one in Lepar Pongok, and seven in Toboali.
Central Bangka District had 12 hotspots spreading in Koba and Sngai Selang sub-districts.
"In Bangka District, there are six hotspots comprising one in West Mendo sub-district, five in Riau Silip," she noted.
West Bangka District has three hotspots, respectively one in Simpang Teritip sub-district, and two in Muntok.
In the meantime, the Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya said on Friday (Oct. 9) that 1.7 million hectares of forests and land has been burnt in the fires so far.
"Fires have burnt around 1.7 million hectares in Sumatra and Kalimantan," she said while accompanying President Joko Widodo during an inspection of firefighting efforts in the village of Rimbo Panjang in the district of Kampar in the Sumatra province of Riau.
President Joko Widodo admitted that the impact of the fires had been immense, especially on public health.
He also said all policyholders from the central to the local level, as well as the military (TNI) and the police, had worked hard to fight the fires.
"We have indeed been optimal in our efforts, soldiers, fire fighters, the National Agency for Disaster Mitigation (BNPB) officials, Manggala Agni fire brigades, but we must also understand the contribution of the El Nino weather phenomenon to the problem. Imagine it affecting 1.7 million hectares, which is wider than Riau," he stated.
The Indonesian military (TNI) has managed to put out 3,163 out of 3,289 hotspots from land and forest fires in the four provinces of South Sumatra, Riau, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan.
"Since forest fires began to occur in the four provinces, the TNI has deployed 5,010 personnel to help put out the land and forest fires," Head of the TNI's Information Center Brigadier General Tatang Sulaiman said in Jakarta, on Friday (Oct 9).
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