400 Hectares of Forest and Land Fire in South Sumatra Still Burning, Coordinating Minister Urges Personnel to Focus on Critical Areas

PALEMBANG, KOMPAS.com - Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs (Menko Polkam) General TNI (Ret.) Djamari Chaniago has called for focused efforts on critical hotspots to accelerate the extinguishing of forest and land fires (karhutla) in South Sumatra.

Currently, approximately 400 hectares of land in South Sumatra remain ablaze.

"The deployment of forces will be determined by selecting where to concentrate large troop formations and where troop numbers can be reduced to be placed elsewhere," he said while inspecting the Karhutla Task Force post at the Kertapati Subdistrict Office, Palembang, on Friday (18/9/2026).

Djamari emphasized that the resources from the Regional Military Command (Kodam), Police Regional Command (Polda), and local governments must be deployed strategically to avoid overstretching efforts.

Firefighting forces must be allocated according to the conditions in each area.

Locations requiring more intensive handling will receive additional personnel, while resources from more controlled areas can be reassigned.

"We believe this must be resolved quickly. The forces available from Kodam, Polda, and local governments are adequate," he stated.

Number of Hotspots

Meanwhile, Commander of Military Resort 044/Garuda Dempo (Gapo), Brigadier General TNI Khabib Mahfud, reported that as of Friday (18/9/2026) at 05:00 Western Indonesian Time, South Sumatra had around 1,042 hotspots.

The highest concentrations of hotspots were found in Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI), Musi Banyuasin, and Muara Enim regencies.

He noted that the number of hotspots in September increased compared to August.

In August, around 17,088 hotspots were recorded, while in September the count had reached 51,874.

However, the number of hotspots has started to decline over the past week.

On Tuesday, the peak was 4,170 hotspots, which dropped to 1,042 by Friday.

"Tuesday marked the peak with 4,170 hotspots, while today there are 1,042," he explained.

Khabib identified the focus areas for firefighting operations as Cengal, Sungai Menang, Tulung Selapan, and Muara Padang in OKI Regency.

According to previous operation reports, the estimated total burned land reached approximately 639 hectares.

Of this, 210 hectares have been addressed through ground firefighting, while 26 hectares were managed using water bombing operations.

"With these achievements, around 400 hectares of land still require further handling," he added.

Wind Movement

Wind direction is also a key factor in the operations.

Smoke from the hotspots has the potential to move southwestward, including from OKI towards Palembang city.

This situation has led authorities to urge all involved parties to optimize available resources by directing personnel and equipment to the most critical locations.

"These efforts are expected to accelerate extinguishing efforts while preventing fires and smoke from spreading to other areas," he concluded.