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fter recording an increase in the number of hot spots this week, Riau was met with rain that battered the province on Thursday night, reducing the number of hot spots on Friday.

The Pekanbaru Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recorded 42 hot spots in Riau on Friday, a decrease from the 121 on Thursday, with the highest number of hot spots detected in Rokan Hilir regency.

The number of hot spots detected on Thursday at 121 was a significant increase from the 22 recorded on Wednesday afternoon, as the dry season is expected to hit its peak this month.

Rokan Hilir, which recorded 19 hot spots on Friday, has been struggling to combat forest fires that have destroyed hundreds of hectares of oil palm plantations and peatland.

“The task force is trying to extinguish the fires but the dry season and strong winds accelerate the spread of fires,” Riau Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD Riau) head Edwar Sanger said on Thursday.

Smog from the fires has spread to neighboring Dumai City, causing hazy conditions on Thursday morning.

Concerned that the haze could spread to Asian Games co-host city Palembang, South Sumatra, the Riau administration extended on June 1 the emergency alert period for forest fires to Nov. 30.

In neighboring North Sumatra province, fires have razed at least 10 ha of protected forest in Dairi regency, near popular tourist destination Lake Toba, as of Wednesday evening, according to BPBD Dairi.

As of Friday morning, the fires have yet to be completely extinguished because of hot weather.

Janwar from BPBD Dairi said his team, along with local villagers, was trying to put out the fires, but it faced geographical problems, with steep and hilly terrain making it difficult for firefighters to reach the fires.

The local police are investigating the fires to determine how they started. There is speculation that they were started by cigarettes that were thrown on the ground.

Authorities have been stepping up measures to prevent or mitigate forest fires across Sumatra Island, as Palembang is located near many potential hot spots, including those in Riau.

However, the government may need to work even harder than anticipated, with BPBD South Sumatra reporting that the number of hot spots in the province increased from three on Tuesday to 12 on Friday.

The head of the agency, Ansori, said the hot spots were probably caused by the region’s dry peatland and a task force would be deployed to wet the area.

The head of South Sumatra’s task force for forest fires, Iman Budiman, said nearly 90 percent of forest fires in South Sumatra were caused by slash-and-burn practices, which indicated a lack of awareness from locals.

The rising number of hot spots was also seen in other parts of the country, including West Kalimantan, where slash-and-burn practices remain “a local tradition”.

National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Friday that the agency had deployed firefighters and four water-bombing helicopters to control fires that were ravaging some parts of the province.

With the effort, the number of hot spots in West Kalimantan decreased to 352 as of Friday afternoon from 1,061 on Thursday morning. (sau)

— Apriadi Gunawan contributed to this story from Medan.