Posted 19 July 2007 @ 09:57
JAKARTA, 19 July 2007 - Firefighters battle dozens of land-clearing forest fires on the island of Sumatra, officials told, as thick clouds of haze spread across parts of the region. Donny Osmon, head of a local firefighter agency, said that farmers and agricultural companies began setting the fires last Sunday, at the start of the dry season, to clear brush and peat lands for use as agricultural estate.
The police is investigating the fires, he said, amid fears the blazes would spread. So far 37 hot spot have been detected but the number of fires is expected to rise in the hundreds within the next few weeks. Haze from forest fires has become a major problem for large parts of Southeast Asia over the last decade and has become a source of tension between Malaysia and Singapore. Residents and workers on Sumatra itself complained as well.
"This is an annual problem for us," said Asnan, a chief of plantation workers at PT. Muaro Kahuripan, denying any involvement by his palm oil company. "The government has to stop the fires from the beginning."
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