Indonesia fights expanding forest fires with rain and ground crews
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Indonesia’s National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB) is increasing its efforts to fight forest and peatland fires in six provinces. South Sumatra, Jambi, Riau, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan.
BNPB is using weather modification technology, ground firefighting, and water bombing to suppress the blazes. Officials believe the current strong El Niño weather pattern is contributing to the expansion of burned areas, especially in regions with peatlands.
Weather modification, specifically inducing rainfall, appears to be the most effective method, covering large areas quickly. Ground crews are particularly important in peatlands where fires burn underground and are difficult to reach. Water bombing, while helpful in quickly suppressing flames, has a limited capacity of about four tons per flight. BNPB is focusing on peatlands with specialized techniques, using nozzles to inject water 1 to 2 meters into the soil to extinguish smoldering embers below the surface.
The agency is also proactively using cloud seeding in areas currently free of fires, like Banjarmasin, to prevent smoke from neighboring districts from drifting in. As of September 8, 2026, approximately 76,922.3 hectares of land had burned across the six priority provinces.
