Staring out at the charred cemetery about 30 metres behind his house in Indonesian Borneo, Trovimus Akoi told of the sleepless Sunday night he spent battling an inferno far too close to home.
asserted
he → star → home
He first spotted the wildfire about half a mile away while feeding his chickens.
asserted
He → spot → chickens
Within hours, the fire tore across the parched terrain at terrifying speed.
asserted
fire → tear → speed
As the blaze closed in on his community, he and his neighbours armed themselves with hoses, buckets and hand pumps and started a desperate fight to save their homes.
asserted
he → close → homes
With the canals and ponds completely dried up by a drought, they dug three-metre-deep holes into the earth in search of groundwater.
asserted
they → dry → groundwater
“The flames were about 10 metres high, and all we could see was red,” Akoi told me when I visited him last week, pointing to the goosebumps rising on his arms.
uncertain
I → see → arms
Our lungs hurt, our eyes burned, but we had to keep going.”
asserted
we → hurt → ?
Although they eventually received help and saved their homes, what Akoi, 38, and his neighbours battled in late August was more than a natural disaster – it was also a human-made calamity produced by years of deliberate land clearing for cash crops, including timber and palm oil.
asserted
it → receive → timber
He lives in Kubu Raya regency in West Kalimantan province, which contains millions of acres of peatlands, a kind of wetland.
asserted
which → live → wetland
Across Indonesia – which shares the island of Borneo with Malaysia and Brunei – the conversion of these bogs into farmland has dried them out and transformed them into tinderboxes.
asserted
conversion → share → tinderboxes
So far this year, wildfires have incinerated tens of thousands of acres in this province alone, fuelled by an unforgiving drought brought by a powerful El Nino climate shift.
asserted
wildfires → incinerate → shift
In Pontianak, the provincial capital, Tresna Waniati, a 33-year-old volunteer firefighter, was ready for her next deployment despite having just been discharged from the hospital for a severe respiratory infection.
asserted
Waniati → discharge → infection
For the past three months, she had been inhaling carbon-choked air while battling the wildfires, leaving her four-year-old son at home with her parents.
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she → inhale → parents
To reach the remote fire hotspots, she navigated rugged terrain on her motorcycle, which was weighed down by water pumps, cans of fuel and rolls of hoses.
asserted
which → reach → hoses
“The fires and the smoke are extraordinary this time,” Tresna said.
asserted
Tresna → say → ?
“Scarcity of water makes it harder.
asserted
it → make → water
Of course, we are all exhausted, but we have to do it.”
asserted
we → have → it
Millions of people across West Kalimantan have been living for months beneath this stifling blanket of haze.
asserted
Millions → live → haze
Air quality has repeatedly hit hazardous levels, forcing authorities to extend a state of emergency.
asserted
quality → hit → emergency
Hundreds of schools have suspended in-person classes while reduced visibility – to a few hundred metres – has brought regional transport to a crawl.
asserted
visibility → suspend → crawl
Some residents wear face masks, but many said they were fed up with them.
asserted
they → wear → them
Forest fires occur annually in Indonesia, but this year’s devastation could be among the worst on record.
uncertain
devastation → occur → record
Government figures show that about half a million acres burned through July, but the independent platform Nusantara Atlas said the toll through August was 2.2 million acres.
asserted
toll → show → August
The normally bustling market alleys in Pontianak appeared emptier than usual this month, their sounds muffled by the heavy air.
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sounds → appear → air
Elisabet, 31, was arranging her dried fish containers, wiping away a fine dusting of soot that had settled on the display trays.
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that → arrange → trays
A few hurried shoppers moved briskly, eager to grab staples before retreating indoors to escape the amber haze that blanketed the city and turned afternoon skies into a murky twilight.
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that → move → twilight
Since the haze took hold of the city around late June, she said, her daily sales had dropped by nearly half.
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sales → take → half
“I know breathing in this toxic air is bad for my health, but I cannot afford to stay home,” said Elisabet, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name.
asserted
who → know → name
“I’m just hoping for a few sales, so my goods don’t go to waste.”
asserted
goods → hop → waste
The Centre of Economic and Law Studies, an Indonesian think tank, estimates that the country’s wildfires from January to August could inflict up to 123.1 trillion rupiah ($9.7 billion) in economic and healthcare costs, a figure expected to climb if the burning continues through the end of the year.
uncertain
burning → estimate → year
More than 13 million people across seven provinces have been exposed to toxic smoke.
asserted
people → expose → smoke
According to the Health Ministry, the number of people suffering respiratory infections in these regions more than doubled over one week in September, as the number of hot spots soared.
uncertain
number → accord → spots
Between August 18 and September 21, health officials recorded nearly 175,000 cases.
asserted
officials → record → cases
The Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Centre, a non-profit, has set up 13 “Oxygen Houses” where the public can get medical care and oxygen therapy for respiratory distress caused by smoke inhalation.
asserted
public → set → inhalation
In addition, two mobile units provide oxygen to people in fire zones who are unable to leave or could not afford to evacuate.
uncertain
who → provide → zones
“Our volunteers deliver oxygen tanks to the vulnerable or too ill people in the impacted zones,” said Hermayani Putera, the centre’s co-ordinator.
asserted
Putera → deliver → zones
“The Oxygen Houses serve as a refuge, clean-air sanctuary – a break from the polluted smoke.”
asserted
Houses → serve → smoke
With the haze spreading to neighbouring Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, Indonesia’s President, Prabowo Subianto, has accepted international assistance from Japan and Malaysia to tackle the fires.
asserted
President → spread → fires
He has also ordered a major crackdown on commercial “slash-and-burn” agriculture, in which companies clear forests and burn the fallen trees to make way for new fields.
asserted
companies → order → fields
So far, the Forestry Ministry has suspended the permits of 26 companies that have cut forests to grow cash crops.
asserted
that → suspend → crops
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
