TEMPO.CO, Banda Aceh - The Blang Bintang chapter of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said its satellite had detected 22 hot spots across three provinces on Sumatera Island.

“The three provinces are South Sumatera, Bangka Belitung and Lampung,” said Zakaria Ahmad, the section head of data and information of Blang Bintang BMKG in Aceh Besar on Monday, September 10, 2018.

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He added 11 of the hot spots were believed to be fire spots, allowing for their level of certainty that hit above 81 percent with affected areas spotted in three provinces. “The most were found in Lampung,” he said.

He went on the explain that four of the hot spots were suspected to be fire spots with a level of certainty of above 71 percent, while the remaining seven showed a low level of certainty.

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Zakaria said the satellite did not find any hot spot in Aceh, yet he added it did not necessarily mean the province was safe. “The central areas of Aceh were the most susceptible to fire,” he said.

The Aceh Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBA) recorded 347.12 hectares of forests and lands, particularly dry peats, burned in the past two months in Aceh. “The size of lands that were on fire from June to July 2018 totaled 347.12 hectares in eight regencies,” said BPBA operation head Teuku Ahmad Dadek.

ANTARA