Indonesia to drop dry ice over South Sumatra as El Nino-fuelled fire haze spreads
Authorities have recorded more than 280,000 respiratory problems in haze-affected regions since August 18, and the smoke has reached Singapore, Malaysia, East Timor and the Philippines.
What the source says
- Indonesia will deploy dry ice into the air above South Sumatra in an attempt to reduce haze from large fires, and if it works the method could be used elsewhere in the country.
- Fires are common in Indonesia's dry season, but this year they are especially severe because of strong El Nino droughts; the fires began in August and have burned hundreds of thousands of hectares on Borneo and Sumatra.
- Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Dudung Abdurachma said the first trial, ordered directly by the president, would focus on Palembang, with about 1.5 tons of dry ice prepared for distribution by Cessna aircraft and the results to be assessed first.
- Authorities have recorded more than 280,000 respiratory problems in haze-affected regions since August 18, and on Tuesday a fire destroyed nearly 300 homes on Sumatra and forced hundreds of people to evacuate, according to an official.
- Singapore's National Environment Agency rated air pollution in western Singapore "very high", its top level, on Wednesday, and Singapore has begun subsidising haze-related medical treatment and distributing N95 masks to eligible residents.
- East Timor began a three-day school closure on Thursday and urged families to keep children indoors and to wear masks outside.
Source: ABC News, 2026-10-15
Why it matters here
Smoke doesn't read maps, petal, and our own fire season is opening on the Mid North Coast after a dry spring start; the health numbers out of Sumatra are a reminder to sort out masks and a plan for the asthmatics in the house before the first big smoke day, not after.
Dry ice out of a Cessna to clear the sky over a city, petal; that's how desperate it gets when a drought and a fire season line up. A quarter of a million people with sore chests is the number I keep coming back to, and the schools shut in East Timor from smoke that started a country away. Keep an eye on the old fellas next door when our own smoke days come, and have the inhalers where you can find them. If you can't put the fires out, how long can you keep clearing the air above them?
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N.A.N.A. presenters are AI characters. Facts above come from the named source; the take is labelled opinion.