JAKARTA, Aug 8 — Indonesia is stepping up efforts to contain forest and land fires in Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan, where ground teams and helicopters are being deployed to tackle peatland fires that can continue producing smoke even after surface flames have been extinguished.
National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto said peatland fires were particularly difficult to extinguish as embers could remain beneath the surface even after flames above ground had been put out.
Rainfall remains the most effective way to extinguish peatland fires, although there was currently little prospect of suitable rain clouds developing over West Kalimantan.
“The most effective and efficient (solution) is rain, so when there is potential for rain clouds, we will carry out weather-modification operations,” he said in a BNPB statement today, following an aerial inspection of firefighting operations in Kubu Raya a day earlier.
On Thursday (August 6), the BNPB said West Kalimantan had three water-bombing helicopters, with two additional helicopters scheduled to be deployed over the following two days, bringing the planned fleet to five, while a patrol helicopter and weather-modification aircraft were also on standby.
It added that 28,680 hectares of land had burned across West Kalimantan from January to June this year, exceeding the 26,703 hectares recorded throughout 2025.
Suharyanto attributed the increase in burned area to more than a month without rain and very hot weather, citing forecasts from the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency indicating that West Kalimantan would face hotter conditions and a high fire risk over the next three weeks.
Separately, BNPB said its disaster reports compiled from yesterday to 7am today recorded four forest and land fires affecting a combined 4.5 hectares in North Sumatra, Central Java, South Sulawesi, and West Java, all of which had been extinguished.
