Volunteers across Indonesian Borneo are working tirelessly to battle a severe wave of wildfires that has consumed roughly 200,000 hectares of land since early July. Driven by intense drought conditions intensified by a powerful Super El Niño climate pattern, thousands of active fire hotspots have multiplied rapidly throughout the region.
The resulting disaster has blanketed parts of South East Asia in a dense, amber smog. Air pollution has drifted across international borders to affect nations including Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, sending regional air quality indices to hazardous extremes.
For frontline workers like Fahrin Ramadhianto and Dwi Sujatmoko, the reality of the crisis is immediate and punishing. Sujatmoko describes the thick, irritating haze as comparable to tear gas, burning the eyes and stinging the nose as volunteers combat the flames using basic portable pumps, carts, and hand tools.
Many of these dedicated emergency workers belong to local indigenous communities, such as the Dayak and Banjar populations. Operating under difficult conditions, they face not only visible surface flames but also dangerous subterranean infernos that smoulder out of sight beneath the ground.
The primary environmental danger stems from the landscape itself, as the fires are tearing through a vast, 4.5-million-hectare tropical peatland ecosystem. Under healthy conditions, these waterlogged swamps act as powerful carbon sinks, trapping decomposed organic matter beneath the surface over thousands of years.
Dr Nisa Novita, a researcher with the Indonesian conservation organization Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara, notes that Kalimantan features peat deposits reaching depths of more than 20 meters. A single hectare of such deep peat can hold thousands of tonnes of carbon, making the burning terrain behave like a potential carbon bomb.
When these dried peat beds catch fire, they release massive pulses of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane into the atmosphere. This sudden combustion undoes millennia of natural carbon storage in a matter of days.
The human cost of the environmental catastrophe is mounting rapidly. Official figures from Indonesia's Health Ministry indicate that tens of thousands of people sought treatment for acute respiratory infections between July and August.
Among those affected are more than 12,000 young children under the age of five. Medical facilities across the impacted countries have experienced a surge in admissions as populations struggle to cope with pollution levels soaring well past international health guidelines.
Despite the heavy physical toll and the immense scale of the disaster, local volunteers remain committed to the fight. Sujatmoko emphasizes that addressing the crisis and protecting vulnerable communities remains a vital responsibility for those on the ground.
Reporting based on coverage first published by BBC News. Read the original report at BBC News.
