Residents in Bangka Belitung province first spotted the fire approaching their village on Saturday and tried to extinguish it themselves with portable water pumps, according to the head of South Bangka regency, Riza Herdavid. "They thought it was taken care of. But it's peatland, and there was still a fire smouldering underneath. So, when they assumed it was over, the wind shifted and quickly drove the fire toward the settlement," he said.
The local disaster agency reported that nearly 1,000 people had fled the village. Survivors described frantic escapes.
"My house is gone," said Leni, a 55-year-old woman staying at a shelter with her family. "There's nothing left. I could only save myself and take my kids with me. I panicked and didn't have the time to grab anything."
Another survivor, Haryanti, 50, said strong winds fuelled the flames that tore through homes made mostly of wood. "I immediately ran to save myself. None of my belongings survived, only the clothes on my back," she said.
Riza noted that the village had been built on what was once peatland in a protected area, converted into a housing complex last year.
Indonesia regularly experiences wildfires during the dry season, but they have been more intense this year because of El Niño, forecast to be one of the strongest since records began four decades ago. Experts also point to slash-and-burn land clearances that have altered the naturally fire-resistant landscape of Sumatra and Borneo.
This year's fires have created severe haze locally, with tens of thousands of respiratory illness cases, and caused air pollution spikes in Singapore and Malaysia. Thick smoke in a province of Borneo has also grounded water-bombing aircraft, according to the disaster agency. President Prabowo Subianto ordered the government on Monday to mobilise maximum efforts to extinguish wildfires that have been raging for three months in some places. Cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said the government had deployed more than 60,000 personnel on the ground.