Haze engulfing Bukittingi growing thicker
Haze engulfing Bukittingi growing thicker
23 February 2008
published by www.antara.co.id
Padang, Indonesia — Haze engulfing West Sumatra city of Bukittinggi in the last four days as the result of forest fires in neigbouring Riau province had become thicker, a report said.
Several residents in the tourist resort city told Antara here on Friday that the increasingly thick haze has also affected the vision of motorists.
Junaidi, a Metereology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) staff member in Tabing, Padang, said the haze came from Riau province.
Recently, two hotspots were spotted in the forests in Pesisir Selatan district and two forest fires broke out in Padang city, he said.
The local authority had also extinguished a hotspot in Bung Hatta ptotected park.
In the meantime, the BMG in Pekanbaru city said the number of hotspots in Riau had been increasing by 300 percent.
The NOAA 18 satellite in its latest observation said that the number of hotspots in Riau had inreached from 10 to 34.
