"A state of emergency has been declared in the districts of Pelalawan, Bengkalis, Dumai city, and Meranti islands," Saqlul Amri, the chairman of Riaus disaster mitigation office (BPBD) stated here on Friday.
Uncontrollable, massive fires have been raging due to the dry climate, northern winds, and lack of facilities for extinguishing the fires, he added.
The other factors taken into consideration while declaring the emergency status were the large number of people reportedly having health problems due to exposure to the haze and the high standard pollutant index.
The Riau administration has estimated that the fires have spread across a total area of six thousand hectares and affected the health of fifteen thousand people.
The NOAA 18 satellite detected 111 hotspots of forest, plantation, and peatland fires across Sumatra Island, including 88 in the Riau province, on Thursday evening.
In the Riau province, 23 hotspots were found in Bengkalis, 18 in Dumai City, 15 in Siak, 10 in Pelalawan, 8 in Rokan Hilir, one in Meranti Islands, five each in Indragiri Hulu and Indragiri Hilir, and 3 in Kampar.
In Dumai, the hotspots were detected in Bukit Kapur, West Dumai, and East Dumai subdistricts.
The Dumai city administration has declared an emergency status due to the haze arising from the forest fires since last week.
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