Pekanbaru, Riau, (Antarariau.com) - The Modis Terra and Aqua satellites detected 109 hotspots in Riau province, on Sunday, increasing from 61 recorded earlier, noted Saiq Saqlul Amri of the Regional Disaster Mitigation (BPBD).
"We are still trying to put out the forest fires through land and air means. We also continue to produce artificial rain in the region where the land or forest is engulfed by fires," Amri stated here on Monday.
The BPBD head remarked that hotspots detected by the satellites were believed to be the result of forest and land fires.
Based on Riau records, 109 hotspots are scattered across several regions, districts or municipalities in Riau province.
Most of the hotspots were found in Rokan Hilir (43) and Benkalis (15).
The satellites also detected 12 hotspots in Dumai city and 11 in Siak District. Ten hotspots were each located in Pelalawan and Kampar followed by Rokan Hulu with five hotspots, Kuantan Singingi with two hotspots, and one reported in Mernati.
The Terra and Aqua satellites have not yet detected hotspots in Indragiri Hilir, Indragiri Hulu, and Pekanbaru city.
In the meantime, the NOAA 18 satellite on the same day detected 60 hotspots in Riau province. Of the detected hotspots, 27 were found in Rokan Hilir, 7 in Dumai, 6 in Indragiri Hulu, 5 in Bengkalis, 4 each in Kuantan Singingi and Kampar, 3 in Rokan Hulur, and 2 each in Pelalawan and Siak.
Last week, Vice President Boediono chaired a coordinating meeting to discuss forest and plantation fires in Riau province.
"Yesterday, the coordinating meeting was held by involving all stakeholders," spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Agus Wibowo stated here on Friday.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Governor of Riau Arsyadjuliandi Rachman, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan, Chairman of BNPB Syamsul Maarif, Head of the REDD Management Agency Heru Prasetyo, Head of the Presidential Working Unit for Development Monitoring and Supervision (UKP4) Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Attorney General Basrief Arief, and Deputy Police Chief Commissioner General Badrodin Haiti, among several others.
Also present during the meeting were Deputy Minister of Agriculture Rusman Heriawan, Chief of the Riau Police Brigadier General Condro Kirono, Deputy Governor of Riau Province, and representatives from South Sumatra, East Kalimantan, Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Kalimantan.
In a statement, Deputy Governor of Riau Arsyadjuliandi Rachman expressed optimism that the forest fire disaster mitigation efforts will be better this year.
"It is because of tight and good coordination between the regional and central government," he pointed out.
The Riau provincial administration has set up a task force to anticipate and tackle forest fires.
"The task force is routinely monitoring Riau s districts and cities. It also carries out a public awareness campaign to prevent forest fires," he added.
The personnel of the task force comprise 1,096 military personnel, 125 personnel from the Manggala Agni forest fire brigade, 100 members of the Riau disaster mitigation agency s rapid reaction unit (TRC BPBD), 280 officers of the Riau fire brigade, 100 civilian security guards, and 50 members of the university student regiment.
The BNPB had deployed three helicopters to carry out water bombing in order to extinguish the forest and plantation forest fires in Riau.
Some 109 Hotspots Detected In Riau Province
