Indonesia fighting most massive forest fire with foreign aids

Indonesia has witnessed the most massive forest and agriculture fires and the government has decided to scale up operation to douse the blaze with foreign aids, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Satellite observation showed that the number of fire hotspots in Indonesia was more than doubled to 3,226 on Tuesday, compared with 1,545 on Monday morning.

"The number of these hotspots is the biggest ever," said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster management agency.

The forest fire is expected to expand to the largest scale in the history of Indonesia under the current dry weather pattern, Sutopo added.

According to Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, coordinating minister for politics, law and security affairs, the Indonesian government has asked Russia, Canada, Australia and other countries to send aircraft to help extinguish the fire by means of water bombing.

"The government will boost air operation by increasing the number of aircraft for water bombing," Sutopo told Xinhua via the phone.

Supopo said previously that two Russian amphibian Briev Be-200 aircraft with a capability of carrying 12,000 tonnes of water each will arrive on Wednesday.

Forest fires, which initially occurred in Sumatra Island and Borneo Island in the western and central parts of Indonesia, have spread to Celebes Island, Maluku Island and Papua in the east, according to the disaster agency.

Indonesia is home to the world's largest palm oil industry and the annual slash-and-burn practices by companies clearing land for new plantations cause forest fires. The situation worsens this year due to the El Nino effect. Endit