Indonesia to prioritise unavailable firefighting technology in foreign aid
BNPB says Japan and Singapore have offered assistance, while approximately 70,000 personnel have been deployed to tackle forest and land fires.
Indonesia will prioritise equipment and technology it does not currently have when determining its needs for international firefighting assistance, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said.
Berton Panjaitan, head of BNPB’s Disaster Data, Information, and Communication Center, said on October 22 that the government was assessing what assistance would strengthen its response to forest and land fires. He expressed appreciation for offers from countries including Japan and Singapore.
Panjaitan said intensive mitigation work was continuing in six priority provinces. The reported burned areas and fire status were:
- South Sumatra: 5,194 hectares
- Jambi: 2,025 hectares
- Central Kalimantan: 7,938 hectares
- South Kalimantan: 1,974 hectares
- West Kalimantan: 1,290 hectares
- Riau: reportedly no fires
Operations also extended beyond those provinces. In Karanganyar District, Central Java, firefighting covered 490 hectares, with crews facing thick haze, unpredictable winds and steep slopes. Hotspots had reached Post 2 in Cemoro Kandang. A joint team was also working to extinguish fires affecting 316 hectares around Mount Sumbing.
Ground crews and aircraft had conducted firefighting operations over 37 hectares in East Kalimantan, including the Indonesian Capital City (IKN) area. Panjaitan said fires affecting five hectares within the IKN area had been fully extinguished following ground and aerial operations.
He also reported firefighting efforts in Way Kambas National Park and Papua. Approximately 70,000 personnel had been deployed across the response, supported by aircraft and ground-based watering equipment, he said.
