Schools closed as Indonesia battles wildfires
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Indonesia is facing a longer and more severe dry season in 2026 as El Nino intensifies.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Dozens of schools in Indonesia, including in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, are closed due to hazardous haze from wildfires worsened by El Nino.
- The Bromo Tengger Semeru national park fire on Java has burned 900ha, with nearly 50,000 firefighters deployed nationwide to combat multiple blazes.
- Indonesia faces an intense dry season with high wildfire risk, using cloud seeding and extensive firefighting efforts as 2026 wildfires have doubled compared to 2023.
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SURABAYA, Indonesia – Dozens of Indonesian schools were shuttered for a second day on Aug 11 against the spreading haze of wildfires plaguing the archipelago at the start of a long and intense dry season worsened by El Nino.
In West Kalimantan on the island of Borneo that Indonesia shares with Malaysia and Brunei, the mayor of Pontianak ordered schools closed due to the smoke wafting over the city from fires elsewhere.
Public records show Pontianak has tens of thousands of public school pupils.
Children will learn from home for as long as air quality remains poor, mayor Edi Rusdi Kamtono said in a statement on Aug 10, without stating how many schools were affected.
“We have started to feel it, especially at night and in the morning, as haze has already blanketed the city of Pontianak,” he added.
The haze also affected Malaysia.
The air pollution index for Malaysia’s small eastern town of Serian, Sarawak, showed an “unhealthy” level of 190 on Aug 11.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department urged locals to stay indoors, with director-general Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip blaming a “cross-border haze phenomenon from Kalimantan.”
In 2015, schools in Malaysia were ordered to close for two days because of health concerns caused by severe haze from Indonesian fires.
A wildfire in Ogan Ilir regency, in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province, on Aug 9.
PHOTO: REUTERS
On the Indonesian island of Java, firefighters battled flames for a ninth day at a national park where a blaze has scorched 900ha – equal to two per cent of the park’s total area.
The blaze at the Bromo Tengger Semeru national park, a major tourist attraction closed to visitors since Aug 8, is one of several wildfires that have drawn in nearly 50,000 firefighters countrywide.
Indonesia is forecast to experience an unusually tough dry season in 2026 with high risk of drought and wildfires due in part to the El Nino weather phenomenon, the BMKG weather agency has said.
More than 107,000ha of land have burnt countrywide so far in 2026. The authorities insist that food stocks remain adequate.
Hot July
Firefighters are in an all-out battle to control the flames in East Java’s Bromo park.
“We’re making our best effort and mobilising everything... to extinguish and wet-down the area,” local disaster official Satriyo Nurseno told AFP. “We hope that, today, we can put out the fire in all areas, then carry out soaking so that the fire does not reignite.”
Three water-bombing helicopters and fire trucks were providing support to about 200 firefighters, forest rangers, the police and soldiers helping to put out the blaze.
According to the BNPB disaster agency, more than 48,000 personnel have been deployed to fight fires in six provinces.
Security Minister Djamari Chaniago said on Aug 10 Indonesia had deployed 43 helicopters and up to 15 fixed-wing planes for cloud seeding where needed.
The process involves spraying particles such as silver iodide and salt from aircraft to produce rainfall, but that depends on clouds being present.
As Indonesia braces itself for the worst effects of El Nino, the BMKG said the average air temperature in July was 27 deg C – higher than the 26.2 deg C average. It was the highest such jump for July since 1991.
El Nino is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that brings worldwide changes in winds, air pressure and rainfall patterns.
In India and South-east Asia, it typically causes drier conditions.
The last El Nino helped make 2023 and 2024 the two hottest years globally on record.
The land lost to wildfires in Indonesia so far in 2026 is double the area burnt in 2023. AFP
