Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) is deploying two additional water-bombing helicopters to combat the worsening forest and land fires in West Kalimantan Province.
West Kalimantan is one of the priority provinces for the mitigation operation. As of June 2026, the total area of burned land in the region reached 28,680 hectares, exceeding the 26,703 hectares recorded throughout 2025.
Head of BNPB Suharyanto said in an official statement released here on Friday that the emergency measure reflects the central government’s rapid response to the significant increase in wildfires.
He explained that extreme heat and the absence of significant rainfall for more than a month have been the primary drivers of the expanding fires.
“According to Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the weather in West Kalimantan over the next three weeks will be even hotter, and the fire vulnerability level is expected to remain high,” Suharyanto said.
The BNPB is currently focusing its mitigation efforts on aerial operations using water bombing operations as limited formation of rain clouds has rendered cloud seeding — or weather modification operations — largely ineffective.
Consequently, the two additional helicopters will be deployed to complement the three existing units already operating in the fleet.
Nevertheless, the BNPB has kept its patrol helicopters and weather modification aircraft on standby for immediate deployment should the potential for rain cloud formation be detected in the skies over the province.
Suharyanto expressed hope that all involved parties — including the joint military and police task force, local Fire Awareness Community, the Manggala Agni forest-fire brigade, and volunteers under the coordination of regional heads — can act swiftly to extinguish hotspots before the fires escalate further.
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Translator: M. Riezko Bima, Uyu Liman
Editor: Bayu Prasetyo
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