Antara 20 Feb 18;
Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - The Riau provincial government has declared a three-month emergency standby status over land and forest fires, following the escalation of peat land fires.
The acting governor of Riau province, Wan Thamrin Hasyim, announced the emergency standby status during a coordination meeting attended by representatives of the police, military, local legislative council, State Intelligence Agency (BIN) of the Riau chapter, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) office and companies.
The emergency alert status will take effect from Feb 19 to May 31, 2018, he stated here Monday.
He ordered the immediate activation of land and forest fire control task force (Satgas Karhutla) to be led by commander of the Wira Bima district military command 031.
"The step to set the emergency standby status, followed by the creation of land and forest fire control task force, is aimed at ensuring that the forest fire control could be conducted effectively, integratedly, and efficiently," he remarked.
Chief of the Riau Provincial Natural Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), Edwar Sanger, noted that the number of hotspots and land and forest fires increased significantly early in 2018.
Since January, an estimated 549 hectares of land, with 59 hotspots, have caught fire. Nearly 211.5 hectares of the land were found in Meranti district and 121.5 hectares were found in Indragiri Hulu district.
"Compared to the same month last year, the area of burned land increased 25 percent, and the number of hotspots rose 90 percent," he revealed.
Reported by FB Anggoro
(T.S012/A/KR-BSR/S012)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Riau ups wildfire alert status
Rizal Harahap The Jakarta Post 20 Feb 18;
The Riau administration has increased the emergency status for peatland and forest fires in the province to alert level 3 following fires that burned down hundreds of hectares of peatland as the region enters the dry season this year.
Acting Riau governor Wan Thamrin Hasyim said on Monday that the emergency status would remain in effect until May 31.
He said the province’s peatland and forest fire emergency status had been increased after three regencies, Bengkalis, Indragiri Hilir and Pelalawan, had declared the emergency status in response to the increasing risk of wildfires.
“After assessing the situation and getting input from all parties, such as regency administrations that have declared peatland and forest fire emergency status, I hereby decide that Riau is in a state of emergency for peatland and forest fires,” said Wan Thamrin in a coordination meeting.
"We don't want another haze disaster in Riau. We are anticipating it early by declaring the emergency status, so that we can immediately form a task force to take preventive action," Wan said.
He said prolonged hot weather had led to widespread forest fires in several regencies. Around 540 hectares of land had burned.Earlier this year, the Riau Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) detected 59 hotspots spread out across the province’s 12 cities and regencies. Pelalawan and Indragiri Hilir recorded the highest numbers of hotspots at 20 and 11, respectively. (ebf)
