Singapore has assets on standby, as well as a fire-fighting assistance team on hand to help put out ongoing forest fires in Indonesia, says the Ministry of Defence.
Channel NewsAsia 10 Sep 15;
SINGAPORE: Singapore has offered to assist Indonesia’s efforts to fight ongoing forest fires in Sumatra, which has been causing haze in Singapore and in Malaysia.
The Ministry of Defence on Thursday (Sep 10) said that Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen has called his Indonesian counterpart Ryamizard Ryacudu to reiterate Singapore’s offer of fire-fighting assistance.
“The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) have placed on standby a C-130 aircraft for cloud seeding operations, a Chinook helicopter with a water bucket for aerial fire-fighting, and up to two C-130 aircraft to ferry the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) fire-fighting assistance team,” said MINDEF in a statement.
“The SAF stands ready to support and assist the Indonesian military (TNI), which has been deployed to put out the fires,” MINDEF added.
The forest fires caused air quality in Singapore to reach unhealthy levels on Thursday, with the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) crossing the 100 mark.
Indonesia’s military on Thursday sent more than 1,000 soldiers to South Sumatra province to put out the fires. Willem Rampangilei, the chief of Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, said the forest fires will be extinguished in two weeks.
- CNA/xq
