‘Never-ending’: Relentless wildfires push Sumatra’s firefighters to their limits
Wildfires in Indonesia have caused transboundary haze and disrupted livelihoods in Sumatra. In the second of a series, CNA meets the firefighters enduring choking smoke, sleepless nights and scarce water – and finds out what keeps them going.
Firefighters spraying water at a wildfire in Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, Indonesia, on Sep 11, 2026. (Photo: CNA/Wisnu Agung Prasetyo)
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OGAN ILIR, Indonesia: After eight hours battling flames advancing through a botanical park in South Sumatra, firefighter Rahmat Hadi Wijaya faces a difficult choice.
The fire is still burning. Thick smoke rises from the ground, while embers smoulder beneath layers of dead foliage.
But the 48-year-old has another call to answer: A bushfire about an hour’s drive away is spreading dangerously close to a residential area.
“Every day, we have to respond to two, sometimes three calls. We work from early in the morning until close to midnight. It’s been like this for months,” Rahmat told CNA with a weary smile, as beads of sweat carve through the soot on his face.
Rahmat is one of some 2,000 firefighters employed by Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry specifically to battle forest and land fires.
This year has proved especially punishing.
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More than 200,000ha of land – nearly three times the size of Singapore – was scorched by fires across Indonesia between January and July, according to the forestry ministry.
That was 69 per cent more than during the same period last year, and 47 per cent more than in the first seven months of 2019, another El Nino year.
Official figures for August and September are not yet available. But scientists predict that the area burned during those two months alone could be several times greater than the total recorded in the first seven months of 2026.
Sumatra, alongside Kalimantan, has been among the hardest-hit parts of Indonesia.
The scale of the fires has prompted the government to deploy 80,000 police and military personnel and 10,000 civilian volunteers to reinforce firefighters on the ground.
The blazes have sent hazardous smoke thousands of kilometres across the region into neighbouring countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
In Indonesia, some cities have been blanketed in haze for months, with air quality reaching unhealthy and at times hazardous levels, prompting school closures and warnings for people to limit outdoor activities.
But while most people can retreat indoors to escape the smoke, those fighting the fires must advance towards it – sometimes with deadly consequences.
At least four firefighters have died on the job this year. The latest was a 30-year-old volunteer firefighter in Central Kalimantan, who died on Sep 10 after being hospitalised for three days with a respiratory illness.
“It’s a risky profession,” another firefighter, Zulkarnain, 41, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name, told CNA.
“Every day, we are dealing with intense heat and suffocating smoke.”
Those risks have been compounded this year by an exceptionally powerful El Nino, dubbed “Godzilla”, which has brought extreme heat and prolonged drought to many parts of Indonesia, making fires easier to ignite and harder to contain.
AS FIRES RAGE, WATER RUNS DRY
The firefighters CNA spoke to knew months ago that difficult conditions were coming.
“Since the start of the year, scientists have warned us about Godzilla El Nino. We prepared ourselves by mapping out areas prone to wildfires, conducting training and checking that our equipment was working properly,” Rahmat said.
But even those preparations could not fully prepare him for the severity of this year’s fire season.
In wildfire hotspots such as West Kalimantan and South Sumatra, temperatures have exceeded 38 degrees Celsius. Some parts of Indonesia have gone more than four months without rain.
“This makes the vegetation extremely dry and extremely flammable. Once it is on fire, it can stay burning for a very long time,” Rahmat said.
In parts of Sumatra, including Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra, the terrain compounds the challenge.
Many of the fires burn not on mineral soil but on peatlands, making them notoriously difficult to extinguish.
Peatlands contain thick layers of dead plant material that have accumulated over hundreds or even thousands of years. Once ignited, fires can spread underground and smoulder for weeks, making them difficult to detect and fully put out.
“We had one location which burned for eight days straight,” Rahmat said.
The El Nino-fuelled drought has also caused rivers, lakes and reservoirs in many parts of the country to recede dramatically.
In West Kalimantan, parts of the Kapuas – Indonesia’s longest river – have become so shallow that tugboats hauling coal barges have been left stranded.
More than 800km away in Central Java, prolonged drought has shrunk the Gajah Mungkur reservoir, exposing abandoned homes and graveyards that were submerged for decades.
For firefighters, the dwindling water supply presents a more immediate problem.
“There have been times when all we could do was stand and watch the fire burn because we could not find a water source,” firefighter Dito Prasetyo, 45, told CNA.
Water scarcity has made an already difficult firefighting operation even tougher.
A snapshot of the situation in South Sumatra shows the scale of the challenge. On Sep 14, fires covered 404ha of land across the province, of which 290ha had been extinguished, according to forestry ministry data.
And the pressure is set to grow. With the dry season expected to intensify in September and significant rainfall not forecast until late October or early November, firefighters could find themselves confronting more fires with even fewer water sources.
“It feels like it’s never-ending,” Dito said with a sigh.
Jakarta is deploying 53 water-bombing helicopters to the worst-affected provinces, while eight countries are sending another 35 helicopters to aid firefighting efforts.
But there are limits to what they can achieve.
“Although water-bombing helicopters have been deployed extensively and repeatedly, the results have not been optimal. This is because the area that can be extinguished by water-bombing helicopters is very limited,” Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto said on Sep 15 during a visit to Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra, as quoted by local newspaper Kompas.
In some areas, thick smoke has reduced visibility below safe flying limits, Suharyanto said. At times, the fires are so extensive that a large fleet of heavy aircraft would be needed to make a significant impact.
Weather modification operations have also yielded limited results because there are too few rain-bearing clouds suitable for seeding, the BNPB chief added.
“Which is why we rely very heavily on our ground crew to fight the fires. The government is ready to help with the necessary equipment like water tank trucks and excavators,” Suharyanto said, adding that the police and military are ready to send in more personnel to assist.
STRETCHED TO THEIR LIMITS
The relentless pace has taken a toll on the firefighters, most of whom have been on call since May.
Some told CNA they had gone days, even weeks, without seeing their families. Sleep has become a luxury, snatched in the few hours between one fire and the next – if it comes at all.
And when they do get the chance to rest, a proper bed is often far away. Crews sometimes sleep at makeshift outposts deep in forests and plantations so they can remain close to the blazes they are battling.
But sleep can be perilous. Some have woken to find shifting winds sending flames towards their camps.
“There have been a few close calls. The wind suddenly changed direction and, before we knew it, we found ourselves surrounded by fire,” said 35-year-old firefighter Immanudin.
For firefighters already stretched to their limits, particularly frustrating is knowing that many of the outbreaks could have been prevented.
“About 99 per cent of these fires are caused by human activity,” firefighter Zulkarnain estimated.
“It is disheartening to still see people openly burning rubbish or clearing vegetation with fire. We get frustrated whenever we hear people being arrested for deliberately starting fires to open up new lands for plantations.”
As of Sep 7, police have arrested 138 suspects believed to be responsible for around 200 forest and land fires across the country.
Of those suspects, 119 were accused of deliberately setting fires, while the remaining 19 were linked to fires caused by negligence, Indonesian National Police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo said.
“The number of suspects could still increase. Police are continuing to investigate reports and findings of forest and land fires in various regions,” the four-star police general said on Sep 7, as quoted by local news outlet Jakarta Post.
Under Indonesian law, those convicted of arson face up to 15 years in prison and a 10 billion rupiah (US$563,000) fine. Those convicted of negligence face up to five years in prison and/or a fine of 500 million rupiah.
But Zulkarnain said he would not let that frustration keep him from doing his job.
“We fight the fires no matter how difficult it gets because there is so much at stake,” he said.
“We could be saving lives and homes. We could be keeping the air clear and preventing roads and airports from having to close.”
For residents in fire-prone communities, the sight of firefighters like Zulkarnain arriving in a bright red fire engine can bring an immediate sense of relief.
They welcome firefighters into their homes, brewing coffee and offering snacks they have on hand.
“I’m doing all I can to make them stay a little longer,” said Dewi, whose house stands just metres from the charred remains of a recently extinguished fire.
“But I know they have other calls to answer.”
The warmth that residents have shown is what keeps firefighters like Rahmat going. In his 20 years on the job, he has never missed a single wildfire season.
“I feel happy when the rescue and assistance we provide can make a difference to people who need it,” he said.
“That is what gives us the strength to keep doing this work. We don’t feel tired when we know that what we do is helping people.”
Source: CNA/ni(ws)
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