REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- The Pekanbaru meteorology office recorded 633 hotspots indicating forest and plantation fires in seven provinces on Sumatra Island, Tuesday.
"The largest number of 462 hotspots were detected in South Sumatra," Sugarin, head of the Pekanbaru meteorology office, said here on Wednesday.
The Terra and Aqua satellites detected 70 hotspots in Jambi, 23 in Lampung, 28 in Bangka Belitung, 19 in Bengkulu, 25 in Riau, six in West Sumatra, and 22 in Riau Province.
In Riau, three hotspots were found in Meranti, 12 in Indragiri Hilir, and seven in Indragiri Hulu.
The forest, peatland and plantation fires produced thick haze that reduced visibility to 200 meters in Pelalawan, 300 meters in Dumai, 500 meters in both Rengat and Pekanbaru in Riau Province.
In the meantime, the number of hotspots in South Sumatra sharply increased to 530 on Wednesday morning, from 163 recorded two days ago.
"Based on today's satellite monitoring, the number of hotspots in 16 districts/cities in South Sumatra was found to be quite high," Indra Purnama, an official of the South Sumatra meteorology office, stated here on Wednesday.
Of the 530 hotspots, 356 were detected in Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) district, 50 in Musirawas, 35 in Musi Banyuasin, 34 in Banyuasin, 13 in Lahat, 11 in North Musirawas, 10 in Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU), eight in Muaraenim, five in Empat Lawang, and two each in East OKU and Ogan Ilir.
Palembang, Prabumulih, Pagaralam, South OKU, and Pali had only one hotspot each.
The South Sumatra forest fire task force is currently concentrating its efforts on extinguishing the peatland fires in OKI.
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