KUALA LUMPUR: Australia has followed in Malaysia and Singapore’s footsteps by sending planes to help Indonesia put out forest fires that have shrouded the skies of Southeast Asian countries with haze for more than a month.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on her ministerial website today said Australia had sent two aerial response firefighting teams to assist Indonesia in combating forest fires raging in South Sumatera.
The aircrafts, namely a L100 Lockheed C130 Water Tanker (“Thor”) and a Turbo Commander 690B lead plane have arrived in Sumatera and are scheduled to start operations today.
The response team is expected to be based outside Palembang.
An assessment team had arrived earlier in Palembang, Sumatra on Sunday to coordinate the ground arrangements with Indonesian authorities.
“I reiterate my gratitude to the NSW Rural Fire Service for its rapid response to Indonesia's request for assistance and acknowledge the contribution of the Victorian Government’s personnel to this operation,” she added.
“While Australia has experienced a dramatic start to the bushfire season, a lull in severe weather conditions has meant we can assist Indonesia and still maintain national aerial fire fighting coverage,” she said in a separate post which announced Australia’s decision a few days ago.
“Our Federal and State governments understand the social and economic impact from bushfires and are ready to support our Indonesian neighbours at this time of need,” she added.
Bishop explained that the fires are creating hazardous conditions in at least six Indonesian provinces.
Over 135,000 Indonesians have been affected with respiratory illnesses. The fires have continued to worsen due to drought conditions across Indonesia.
So far a total of 1.7-million hectares of Indonesian land and forests are reportedly affected by the fires.
President Joko Widodo had earlier said Indonesia plans to extinguish all fires burning in different parts of the country within two weeks, with the assistance of neighboring countries.
It has accepted help from its neighbors, including Australia, to put out the fires that degraded air quality in Malaysia and Singapore to levels described as “hazardous” and caused the haze to travel as far away as Thailand.
Malaysia flew in a CL415 Bombardier with a flight crew of 12 people while Singapore dispatched a Chinook helicopter and a Hercules plane to help Indonesian authorities conduct water bombing and cloud seeding in South Sumatera to generate rain and put out the fires.
On Oct 14, the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre picked up 21 hotspots in Kalimantan and more than 150 hotspots in Sumatera, through satellites.
Earlier Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd was forced to close three of its airports while seven provinces in southern Thailand were affected by the haze, including the resort island of Phuket.