Wildfire at Indonesia's Mount Bromo mostly contained as smoke forces school closures

MOUNT BROMO, Indonesia — Indonesian firefighters have mostly contained a wildfire that has scorched a large area of a national park on the main island of Java, though crews are battling several remaining hot spots in the popular tourist destination, authorities said.

The fire, which began last week, impacted nearly 900 hectares (2,224 acres) across the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park as of Tuesday, after large areas of dry grassland, vegetation and protected edelweiss flowers burned in 36 hot spots, said Rudijanta Tjahja Nugraha, head of the park located in East Java province.

The volcanic landscape of Mount Bromo, one of Indonesia’s best-known attractions, is in the impacted area and has been closed as firefighters work to prevent the blaze from spreading in the conservation zone.

As of Tuesday, active hot spots remain in two locations within the park: Puncak 30, a popular viewpoint for tourists visiting the volcanic landscape of Mount Bromo, and Dengklek, an area where the volcano monitoring post is located, said Suharyanto, the head of National Disaster Management Agency, or BNPB.

“We expect the two remaining hotspots to be extinguished by Friday,” said Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses a single name, during a visit to Mount Bromo on Tuesday. “That would allow us to redeploy two of the three water-bombing helicopters to help fight forest fires that are also burning in other areas.”

Teams have been working to prevent flare-ups on the ground and with aerial operations, Nugraha said.

“We are not only trying to put out the fire, but also ensuring it is completely extinguished and does not reemerge,” he said.

Indonesia faces a growing wildfire crisis during the dry season. The BNPB said nearly 48,900 hectares (121,000 acres) of peatland had burned across six fire-prone provinces as of Monday, with the largest affected area in West Kalimantan province on Borneo island.

In the West Kalimantan provincial capital Pontianak, the city’s Education and Cultural Office on Monday ordered schools to suspend in-person classes after air quality deteriorated to unhealthy levels and health officials reported a rise in respiratory illnesses.

The Indonesian government has intensified firefighting efforts across Sumatra and Borneo islands, deploying more than 35 aircraft including water-bombing helicopters and patrol airplanes.

“Aerial operations are supporting ground operations which are especially critical in peatland areas,” said Suharyanto. “Because peat fires can continue smoldering underground long after surface flames disappear and can reignite if not fully extinguished.”

Peatland fires generate dense smoke that contributes to hazardous haze, worsening air quality and increasing health risks across affected areas, sometimes even in neighboring countries, he said.

Forest and peat fires in Indonesia have strained relations with neighboring countries.

Satellite imagery has shown a haze of wildfire smoke drifting from West Kalimantan into neighboring Malaysia on several days this month, according to BNPB.

Haze has worsened in Malaysia’s Sarawak state, which shares a border with Indonesia’s Kalimantan province on Borneo. The air pollutant index of Malaysia’s Department of the Environment showed the number of areas recording unhealthy air quality levels in Sarawak rising to 11 early Tuesday. Sarawak’s government told schools in those areas to halt outdoor activities.

Fires are often started illegally by plantation owners or traditional farmers to clear land for planting and those burns periodically blanket parts of Southeast Asia in hazardous haze, authorities said.

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Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.