Smoke From Indonesian Fires Spreads

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-asia/2006/oct/02/100203495.html

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Smoke and ash from land-clearing fires in Indonesia blanketed a large swath of the country's west on Monday, sending air quality levels plummeting there and in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia, officials said.

The smoke was shrouding an estimated 215,000 square miles of land on Indonesia's islands of Sumatra and Borneo, forcing many residents to wear protective masks and delaying flights, officials and media reports said.

"The haze has persisted for a whole week," said Frans Tandipau, a senior official tasked with extinguishing forest fires on Sumatra.

Fires from land-clearing activities in Sumatra and Borneo, and to a lesser extent Malaysia, have occurred almost every dry season since the late 1990s. They are typically set by people looking for a cheap way to clear brush for plantations.

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