August 10, 2026 | 06:40 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Forest and land fires plagued over a dozen regencies and cities across 10 Indonesian provinces in early August 2026, as reported by the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) on Monday, August 10.
Abdul Muhari, Head of the BNPB Center for Disaster Data, Information, and Communication, stated that the affected areas span Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua, as quoted by ANTARA.
Human negligence, such as burning trash and clearing land by setting fires, along with high dry season temperatures, are reportedly triggering the primary hotspots in these regions.
The BNPB Directorate of Operations Control confirmed that the most severe fire on Java occurred in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) area in East Java, with the total area of scorched land reaching 520 hectares by Sunday evening, resulting in the complete closure of all tourist entry points for an indefinite period.
Meanwhile, outside Java, forest and land fires significantly affected Banggai Islands Regency (Central Sulawesi), where 72.4 hectares were burned; East Halmahera (North Maluku), with 23 hectares affected; and Tana Toraja (South Sulawesi), with 15 hectares affected.
Small-scale forest and land fires—ranging from one hectare to medium-sized blazes covering tens of hectares—were also detected and successfully extinguished by joint teams in Aceh Besar (Aceh), East Belitung (Bangka Belitung), Subang (West Java), Jepara and Banyumas (Central Java), Jember (East Java), Tojo Una-Una (Central Sulawesi), and Sorong City (Southwest Papua).
According to Abdul, joint response teams have been fully mobilized across all affected areas to manage and mitigate the spread of the fires. They are employing measures such as deploying ground-based spraying equipment and water tanker trucks, creating firebreaks, and conducting aerial water-bombing operations via helicopter.
To prevent the escalation of these dry-weather hydrometeorological disasters, the BNPB strongly urges the public not to clear land by burning, not to discard cigarette butts carelessly, and not to burn trash in open areas.
The public is also urged to use clean water sparingly and to prepare reserve water storage during the dry season, which is expected to continue until late August or September.
Read: Indonesia Deploys Ground, Aerial Operations to Fight Bromo Forest Fire
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