In the "biggest" fire haze of Indonesia's history, a senior government official said on Wednesday, 21 October that the country is most likely to see the forest and peatland fires last until the end of November.
The fires started three months ago in Sumatra Island and Bornea Island in the western and central parts of Indonesia before spreading to Celebes Island, Maluku Island and Papua in the eastern sides.
This year, over half of Indonesia's fires had started in the tropical peatland regions due to the ongoing "El Nino" weather condition, according to data provided by the "World Resources Institute".
"El Nino" has caused Indonesia to notice massive increase in temperature and drought like conditions, fuelling the start of fire.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, senior spokesman of Indonesia's disaster management agency, said that "El Nino" conditions could make the forest fire escalate to the largest scale. Reports said that satellite observation showed the number of fire hotspots had doubled from 1,545 to 3,226 between Monday morning and Tuesday.
Indonesian government said that they have already asked Russia, Canada and Australia to lend them water-bombing aircraft for extinguishing the fires. Fire-fighting teams from Malaysia and Australia that were sent to Indonesia on a two-week mission, have already finished their work and Singapore is the only foreign nation left to offer help.
Until now, land and aerial fire-fighting teams have been unsuccessful in putting out the fires that have created hazardous smog.
The fire haze has reached such an adverse level that over 100,000 residents in Sumatra and Bornea regions have been affected, malaysiakini reported.
Reports released by "Global Fire Emissions Database" revealed that between 1 September and 14 October, Indonesia's daily emissions due to fires outdid those of the whole of US.
