KUBU RAYA, thekabarnews.com—Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni warned that underground peat fires could continue burning in West Kalimantan. He issued this warning even after satellite monitoring showed a sharp decline in detected hotspots.

Raja Juli inspected burned peatland in Rasau Jaya Tiga village, Rasau Jaya district, Kubu Raya regency, West Kalimantan, on Monday, August 24.

West Kalimantan Governor Ria Norsan, military (TNI) and police officers, disaster-management officials, Manggala Agni firefighters and community volunteers joined the visit.

The Forestry Ministry’s SiPongi monitoring system recorded 28 hotspots across West Kalimantan as of 11:59 p.m. on August 23. Ketapang accounted for 16 hotspots, Melawi recorded 11 and Kubu Raya registered one.

“Thank God, through the cooperation of all parties, including the TNI, the police, and teams on the ground and in the air, as well as our Manggala Agni colleagues from the Forestry Ministry, who have worked tirelessly, the number of hotspots in West Kalimantan stood at only 28 as of last night,” Raja Juli said.

“We will update the data later. Once again, the situation is highly dynamic,” he added.

The decline does not mean authorities can declare the province free from fire and haze risks. A hotspot represents a satellite-detected thermal anomaly, while underground combustion may continue after surface flames disappear.

During the inspection, Raja Juli saw no open flames but observed smoke rising from the peat.

“The hotspot count does not always correspond with the level of haze. I visited one location in Kubu Raya, in Rasau Jaya Tiga. The flames were gone, but smoke from the peat soil remained clearly visible,” Raja Juli said.

Peat fires can spread beneath the surface, making them more difficult to detect and extinguish than fires on mineral soil.

Firefighters must saturate the affected ground and continue monitoring it to prevent underground embers from reigniting vegetation.

“Therefore, crews need to continue cooling and extinguishing the area,” Raja Juli said.

The Forestry Ministry will deploy 5,000 civil servants to reinforce wildfire operations across six priority provinces. It plans to assign 2,200 personnel to three Kalimantan provinces, including 700 to West Kalimantan.

“Specifically for West Kalimantan, we will send 700 civil servants from regions that forest and land fires have not severely affected,” Raja Juli said.

He said President Prabowo Subianto instructed him to ensure that the central government’s wildfire directives reached field operations.

“President Prabowo Subianto asked me to visit West Kalimantan today and ensure that officials here properly implement his directives,” he said.

Senior Forestry Ministry officials will also work from West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Riau, South Sumatra and Jambi. The deployed personnel will support patrols, firefighting, field coordination and post-fire cooling operations.

The government has also deployed seven water-bombing helicopters, two patrol helicopters and one aircraft for weather-modification operations in West Kalimantan.

Authorities stressed that crews must continue ground verification. This is because a lower hotspot count alone cannot confirm that the emergency has ended.