Overview
- Authorities confirmed Friday that four emergency responders were trapped and killed by flames and dense smoke while fighting a fire in a remote Java national park and that two others suffered severe burns.
- Rescuers said the victims were part of a 12-person team and that difficult, steep terrain forced them to carry the bodies about two kilometers on stretchers and has complicated the ongoing investigation into possible negligence.
- Satellite monitoring showed a sharp escalation in hotspots, rising to 799 from 372 the previous day, a jump that officials say reflects intensifying fires across Sumatra, Borneo and Java.
- The smoke has produced severe cross-border pollution with Singapore recording the world’s worst city air on IQAir, Malaysia closing hundreds of schools and flight cancellations and evacuations reported in affected Indonesian regions.
- Tens of thousands of firefighters, military and volunteers are battling smouldering peat and forest blazes that experts say are the worst in about 40 years due to El Niño and illegal land clearing, and Singapore has announced plans to pursue legal action while Indonesian authorities probe companies and deaths.