Death Toll Rises as Millions in Indonesia Suffer from Raging Forest Fires https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/death-toll-rises-as-millions-in-indonesia-suffer-from-raging-11902862... According to the Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency, more than 285,000ha of land have been burned since the dry season began in June.
On Friday morning, a total of 3,673 hotspots were detected across three provinces in Sumatra and three provinces in the Indonesian part of Borneo, compared to 1,092 hotspots detected in mid-August.
The forest fires have caused several Indonesian cities to be blanketed by thick smog. Neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia were not spared either.
Fires & Haze over Indonesia
On Friday afternoon, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore topped the list of major cities with the worst air quality according to Swiss-based group AirVisual.
In Singapore, the AQI ranged between 156 and 160. AQI measures the concentration of six major pollutants in the air.
Meanwhile in Indonesia, an AQI of 580 was recorded on Friday afternoon, a level which is considered “hazardous”, meaning that the air is deemed toxic and poses serious risk to the heart and lungs.
The haze was so thick in the city that visibility dropped to as low as 300 metres.
... This year’s forest fires are the worst since the 2015 haze crisis, when smog from forest fires in Indonesia reached as far as Hanoi and Phnom Penh.
Scientists had estimated that the 2015 fires released CO2 emissions comparable to Japan or India's annual fossil fuel emissions, exposed more than 69 million people to unhealthy air, and cost more than US$16 billion in damages.
