Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has prioritized firefighting in Central Kalimantan and South Sumatra, where large areas of forest and land fires still require urgent suppression, officials said on Wednesday.
"Central Kalimantan and South Sumatra are indeed our main focus right now—our top priorities," Acting Head of the BNPB's Disaster Data, Information and Communication Center Berton SP Panjaitan told a news conference in Jakarta.
BNPB data as of October 13, 2026, showed active fires spanning 663.61 hectares across six provinces in Kalimantan and Sumatra were still being tackled by response teams.
Berton said responders in Central Kalimantan were fighting fires on 7.8 hectares of peatland. Separately, active fires being addressed in the province's Tanjung Puting National Park covered 513.89 hectares, he said.
Meanwhile, active fire areas under response in South Sumatra were recorded at 49.58 hectares, while Jambi reached around 74.5 hectares, according to the agency.
Berton noted that the situation in Riau showed a different trend, with no hotspots detected and no active fires reported to the BNPB.
To accelerate firefighting, the BNPB and joint forces are carrying out ground and aerial suppression operations in the affected provinces.
These measures include direct ground suppression by firefighters, water-bombing helicopters and weather modification operations to help reduce the number of hotspots.
Berton affirmed that suppression efforts will continue until hotspots are extinguished and haze from the fires is reduced.
The BNPB is also strengthening coordination with ministries, state agencies, local governments and other relevant stakeholders to ensure firefighting is carried out more effectively.
These steps are expected to curb the impact of forest and land fires on local communities and reduce the potential spread of haze to other regions, including neighboring countries.
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Translator: Walda Marison, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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