TEMPO.CO, Pekanbaru - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Pekanbaru station detects 720 fire hot spots in nine provinces on Sumatra Island, Thursday morning, August 20.
“Distribution of the hotspots is centered in South Sumatra with 317 hotspots. In Jambi we detected 247 hotspots," said Head of Pekanbaru BMKG station, Sugarin.
In addition, there are 21 hotspots in Lampung, four in West Sumatra, 26 hotspots in the Bangka Belitung Islands, seven hotspots in Bengkulu, one in the Riau Islands, and three hotspots in North Sumatra.
While in Riau province there are 94 hot spots spreading across nine regencies.
"There are nine regencies in Riau contributing to the hotspots. Two top contributors are Indragiri Hulu and Pelalawan with respectively 38 and 24 hotspots," he explained.
Sugarin explained that haze began to envelop the city of Pekanbaru and Pelalawan.
Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) in Riau Province said haze that blanketed Pekanbaru and surrounding originated from neighboring provinces.
"The smoke that blanketed Pekanbaru and some areas [Thursday], was not from forest and land fires in Riau. But a travelled from Jambi and South Sumatra," said Head of Riau BPBD, Edwar Sanger.
He continued, the wind bringing the smoke from forest and land fires in the two provinces to Riau.
“Direction of the wind is currently to the South East, so we are affected by the forest and land fires. We can not do much because it did not originate from Riau," he said.
ANTARA
