Indonesia wildfire fuelled by El Niño razes almost 300 homes

A forest fire on Indonesia’s Sumatra island fuelled by El Niño has razed nearly 300 homes, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate, an official said on Tuesday as the country battles devastating blazes and haze.

Residents first spotted the fire approaching their village in Bangka Belitung province on Saturday and tried to put it out themselves with portable water pumps, said the head of South Bangka regency, Riza Herdavid.

“They thought it was taken care of. But it’s peatland, and there was still a fire smouldering underneath. So, when they assumed it was over, the wind shifted and quickly drove the fire toward the settlement.”

The local disaster agency said nearly 1,000 people had fled the village.

“My house is gone,” said Leni, a 55-year-old woman staying at a shelter with her family.

“There’s nothing left. I could only save myself and take my kids with me ... I panicked and didn’t have the time to grab anything.”

Another survivor, Haryanti, 50, said strong winds had fuelled the flames, which had torn through homes that were made mostly of wood.

“I immediately ran to save myself. None of my belongings survived ... only the clothes on my back,” she said.

Riza said the village had been built on what used to be peatland in a protected area, but which was converted into a housing complex last year.

Indonesia regularly has wildfires during the dry season, but they have been more intense this year because of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which is forecast to be one of the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago.

Experts also point to slash-and-burn land clearances that have changed the naturally fire-resistant landscape of Sumatra and Borneo islands.

This year’s fires have created severe haze locally, with tens of thousands of cases of respiratory illnesses, and caused air pollution spikes in Singapore and Malaysia.

Thick smoke in a province of Borneo has also grounded water-bombing aircraft, according to the disaster agency.

Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, ordered the government on Monday to mobilise maximum efforts to extinguish wildfires that have been raging for three months in some places.

The cabinet secretary, Teddy Indra Wijaya, said the government had deployed more than 60,000 personnel on the ground.