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Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency is expanding wildfire firefighting operations across additional provinces as hazardous haze blanketed parts of the country, Malaysia, and Singapore, with respiratory infections more than doubling in affected Indonesian regions over a single week.

What is a key fact in this story? (1)

**BNPB** is expanding firefighting operations beyond the original six priority provinces (Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan) to high-risk areas including Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park and Mount Butak in East Java, where water bombing helicopters have been deployed.

What is a key fact in this story? (2)

**Joint firefighting teams** are conducting intensive operations in North Maluku, Central Java, North Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, Lampung, and Southeast Sulawesi, acting BNPB data centre head Berton SP Panjaitan said at a Tuesday press conference.

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Indonesia Expands Wildfire Fight as Haze Blankets Region — SkimNews

By Channel News Asia · Summarized & edited by Kapil Samant · 2026-09-16

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BNPB is expanding firefighting operations beyond the original six priority provinces (Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan) to high-risk areas including Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park and Mount Butak in East Java, where water bombing helicopters have been deployed.
Joint firefighting teams are conducting intensive operations in North Maluku, Central Java, North Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, Lampung, and Southeast Sulawesi, acting BNPB data centre head Berton SP Panjaitan said at a Tuesday press conference.
Air quality in Central Kalimantan reached hazardous levels, with South Barito regency recording an ISPU reading of 920 and Murung Raya at 761 — both far above the 300 threshold Indonesia classifies as hazardous.
Acute respiratory infections across seven Indonesian regions more than doubled from 50,891 cases on Sep 1 to 113,336 by Sep 9, with children under five accounting for over 26,500 cases.
Malaysia recorded unhealthy air quality in 40 areas as of Wednesday, with Johan Setia in Selangor registering an API of 182, while Singapore's PSI entered the unhealthy band across all five regions on Tuesday for the first time in seven years before easing to moderate Wednesday morning.

Why it matters: Indonesia's haze is now producing measurable public-health damage — over 113,000 respiratory infections in a single week, with more than 26,500 hitting children under five — while crossing borders to push Singapore into unhealthy air across all five regions for the first time since 2018, exposing how seasonal firefighting continues to lose ground against recurring peat and forest fires.