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Haze from forest, peatland fires disrupts flights
Haze from forest and peatland fires in Riau province has once more covered areas such as Bengkalis, Dumai and Pekanbaru, disrupting flight schedules
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H
aze from forest and peatland fires in Riau province has once more covered areas such as Bengkalis, Dumai and Pekanbaru, disrupting flight schedules.
In Dumai municipality, flight schedules have been disputed at Pinang Kampai Airport.
'Four flight schedules of Pelita Air and Sky Aviation were delayed due to thick haze hampering visibility, which was at between 500 and 800 meters, posing a risk for flights,' said the airport's technical unit head Catur Hargowo on Monday.
He added the flight delays occurred on June 14 and June 16. On Friday, a Pelita Air plane, chartered by PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI) and destined for Jakarta was delayed for two hours and a Sky Aviation plane destined for Pekanbaru, which was scheduled to fly at 10 a.m., was also postponed.
Dumai Health Office has distributed thousands of masks for free in response to residents' complaints of the thick haze mixed with dust.
'We have provided 50,000 masks that will be distributed in stages. Today, we distributed 25,000 masks to residents, especially road users,' said Dumai Health Office head Marjoko Santoso, adding the masks had also been distributed to all the community health centers in Dumai.
Separately, Dumai City Forest Ranger Unit head Tengku Ismet said the haze - which covered Dumai during the weekend - originated from forest and peatland fires, or bush fires in neighboring regencies, such as Bengkalis and Rokan Hilir. 'Based on field observations, Dumai is free of forest fires,' said Ismet.
Bengkalis Disaster Mitigation Agency head Dja'far Arif confirmed Bengkalis had produced the haze.
'Nearly 600 hectares of oil palm plantation and rubber plantation areas and bushes in Sepahat, Tanjung Leban and Bukit Kerikil villages in Bukit district are currently burning. Fire teams, aided by firefighters from a number of plantation companies, including local residents are making efforts to extinguish the fires,' said Dja'far.
According to him, the firefighters were facing difficulties in controlling the fire due to very strong winds and water scarcity.
The latest observation by the Pekanbaru Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) showed 115 hot spots in Riau, significant increase compared to the previous day in which only 78 hot spots were detected.
