Indonesian Fires Drive Regional Haze Crisis

Indonesia plans to trial distributing dry ice from aircraft over South Sumatra in an effort to reduce thick haze caused by severe fires. Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Dudung Abdurachma said the trial, directed by the president, would take place on Thursday local time and focus on the Palembang area. Authorities are preparing 1.5 tonnes of dry ice for release from Cessna aircraft. They will assess whether the tactic works before considering its use elsewhere in the country. The fires, which began in August, have burned hundreds of thousands of hectares across Borneo and Sumatra. Indonesia sees forest fires during its dry season, but the blazes have been particularly severe this year amid strong El Niño-related drought. Authorities have recorded more than 280,000 respiratory problems in haze-affected areas since August 18. A separate fire on Sumatra razed nearly 300 homes on Tuesday and forced hundreds of people to evacuate. Smoke has spread beyond Indonesia to Singapore, Malaysia and East Timor, and as far as the Philippines. Singapore’s National Environment Agency reported that pollution in the west of the country had reached its highest warning level on Wednesday. Tiny particles in the air exceeded the World Health Organization’s recommended average annual exposure. Singapore has introduced subsidies for haze-related medical treatment, a measure last used during the severe Indonesian fires of 2015, and has begun distributing N95 masks to eligible residents when pollution reaches very unhealthy levels. East Timor has closed schools for three days from Thursday to protect students, teachers and other members of the education community. Authorities there urged families to keep children indoors and advised people to wear masks if they go outside.

Wildfire smoke from Indonesia has created striking orange and yellow skies over Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan province, while severely reducing visibility. On Thursday, 15 October, visibility in the city fell to only a few dozen metres. Aerial footage showed the city almost concealed by haze, with the Talawang roundabout and a nearby statue barely visible. The smoke’s effects were not confined to Indonesia: hundreds of kilometres away, Singapore was also blanketed, and the Marina Bay Sands complex was difficult to distinguish from the surrounding skyline. Roads, bridges and vehicles were similarly obscured. The haze is linked to fires that have been burning across Indonesia for months, producing large smoke clouds that have travelled beyond the country’s borders. Malaysia, the Philippines and East Timor have also been affected, making the pollution a regional concern rather than a problem limited to areas near the fires. The spreading smoke has raised concerns about air quality across Southeast Asia and is disrupting everyday life. In East Timor, authorities have ordered schools to close for three days because of the smoke. The scenes in Palangkaraya and Singapore illustrate both the severity and geographic reach of the pollution. Although the fires are burning in Indonesia, their smoke is affecting distant cities and communities across national borders. The article emphasizes the scale of a continuing regional crisis, highlighting sharply reduced visibility, the obscuring of recognizable landmarks and the closure of schools as visible consequences.

The BBC report describes a thick orange haze that has covered Palangka Raya, an Indonesian city in the Kalimantan region. Witnesses shared videos showing the smog spreading across nearby towns, while wildfires continued to burn in the area. The severity of the pollution is reflected in the Indonesian environment ministry’s air pollution index data: the ISPU reading exceeded 1,200 on Wednesday, far above the index’s hazardous threshold of 300. The report says toxic smog is affecting millions of people in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Authorities have partly attributed the worsening haze to “slash and burn,” an agricultural land-clearing method, alongside the intense haze conditions. The article’s headline, quoting the phrase “Nowhere to escape,” conveys the scale and distress of the situation, while the body focuses on eyewitness footage, air-quality data, the ongoing fires and the possible role of agricultural clearing. The supplied article text does not include further details about health impacts, government measures, or the fires’ extent, so it does not establish those specifics. Overall, it is a brief news update informing readers about severe regional air pollution associated with ongoing wildfires and land-clearing practices.

Indonesia is testing the use of dry ice to address smoke from a severe wildfire season, after cloud seeding, water bombing and deploying army personnel. On Thursday, a Cessna is expected to disperse 1.5 tons of dry ice over Palembang, in South Sumatra. Coordinating security minister Dudung Abdurachman said the trial was ordered by President Prabowo Subianto; the government will consider using the method elsewhere if it proves effective. Dry ice has previously been used to promote ice formation in clouds, but a bushfire expert cautions that any relief is likely to be temporary and local because winds will carry more smoke into cleared areas.