Forest and land fires in Indonesia’s Bangka Belitung province have spread into densely populated residential areas, destroying 305 houses and forcing about 500 people to evacuate.
The local disaster mitigation agency said the fire started on Saturday afternoon, 10 October, in Serdang village in South Bangka and continued until late Sunday.
Strong winds fuelled the spread of the fire into residential areas, affecting at least 1,800 people, the agency said.
About 500 people were evacuated to a nearby school building and mosque. No casualties were reported.
The blaze burned 8.3 hectares of land.
Indonesia is battling its most intense wildfires in 11 years, mainly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
The Bangka Belitung incident is the first this year in which wildfires have damaged hundreds of houses, according to Reuters.
Strong winds, peatland terrain, limited water supplies and the use of wood in house construction have made it more difficult for firefighters to contain the fires, the agency said.
The agency has established evacuation tents and a public kitchen and distributed food, water and clothing to affected residents.
From January to July this year, fires burned about 202,000 hectares across Indonesia. Non-governmental organisations estimate that at least another 600,000 hectares may have burned in the following months, although official data for that period has not been released.
Reuters
