Riau's Karhutla Area Reaches 1,041 Hectare Since January

PEKANBARU - The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) and the Riau Provincial Fire Department recorded the area of forest and land fires (karhutla) in the area reached 1,041.74 hectares since the beginning of 2026.

Head of Emergency BPBD Damkar Riau Jim Gafur said that out of the total area, Pelalawan Regency recorded the highest number of fires compared to other areas. This is based on reports as of Thursday (19/2).

"The total area of burned land reached 1,041.74 hectares in Riau since January 1. From this data, Pelalawan became the region with the widest level of damage," said Jim Gafur as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, February 21.

The details of the burned land area in Riau range from the largest, namely Pelalawan Regency 612.30 ha. Then, Bengkalis (201.01 ha), Inderagiri Hilir (64.70 ha), Siak (63.53 ha) Dumai (30.52 ha), Kampar (29.50 ha).

Furthermore, there was also a forest fire in Pekanbaru City with an area of 14.08 ha, Meranti Islands Regency (13.14 ha), Rokan Hilir (10 ha), Kuantan Singingi (1.5 ha), and Indragiri Hulu (1.2 ha). Only Rokan Hulu Regency was reported to still have zero burned land.

"Pelalawan Regency dominates with more than 50 percent of the total area of fires in the entire province," he said.

His party also noted that during 2026, there were 1,849 hotspots. which were detected by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency. Of that number, 128 of them are fire points.

The joint team, he continued, continues to make cooling and extinguishing efforts in the field both through land and air routes. In addition, the aircraft belonging to the National Disaster Management Agency has also made weather modification efforts by sowing 6 tons of salt in the Riau sky.

"The aircraft has carried out 4 air operations with a total of 6,000 kg of salt (NaCl) for weather modification technology efforts in the Pelalawan, Bengkalis, and Rokan Hilir areas," he said.