Jakarta (Antara) – The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said that their latest satellite observation on Thursday morning today shows 264 hot spots indicating forest and land fires in Sumatra.

The BMKG station in Pekanbaru shows Riau as the province with the most number of hotspots with 126 locations. Others include Jambi (53), South Sumatera (30) Bangka Belitung (14), Lampung (19), Kepri (8), North Sumatera (5), meanwhile, Bengkulu, Aceh, and North Sumatera have 3 hotspots.

"The number of hotspots in Riau has increased exponentially compared to just one day ago, most of it is in Pelalawan," said BMKG Pekanbaru's staff analyst Bibin.

This situation has caused Pekanbaru City to be engulfed in smoke that is predicted to come from Pelalawan and was blown by winds from Southeast of the area. This area is experiencing a drought.

Commander of the local firefighters in the forest and land fire task force (Satgas Karhutla) Edwar Sanger said that the entire personnel, land, and air, relentlessly attempts to put out the hotspots.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1230999/bmkg-detects-hundreds-of-hotspots-in-sumatra-island