JAKARTA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- An official at Indonesia's Riau provincial administration said on Thursday that 39,277 residents in several regencies suffered from respiratory problem at present due to the escalating smoke haze from forest fire in the province.
Head of Riau Province Health Office Mimi Nazir said the figure was significantly higher than in July and August recorded at 27,563 and 29,236 respectively.
In anticipating the surge of patients with respiratory problem, she said that public medical centers in the province's 12 regencies and municipalities have been transformed into facilities to serve those exposed by the escalating smoke haze.
"They will get free medical examinations for their respiratory problems in those facilities," she said in the province's capital of Pekanbaru.
In anticipating the situation that could be worsening, Riau Deputy Governor Edy Natar Nasution said that schools have been closed since earlier this week. The provincial administration has also distributed free masks for residents in areas affected by the smoke haze.
Air quality in most of the province's regions has been declared in hazardous status due to the intense smoke haze as of Thursday.
Riau province's related office has detected that the air pollution index, locally abbreviated as ISPU, has averagely reached an alarming level of 300, far higher than the adequate level of 100.
Riau province has the largest forest fire-affected areas at 49,266 hectares from a total of 328,724 hectares detected across the country from January to August this year, according to Indonesia National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).
Other provinces affected by the forest fire are East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and South Sumatra.
Indonesia has deployed thousands of joint personnel to combat the fire that razed the forest and plantation areas in those provinces, assisted with water bombing operations carried out with helicopters and planes.
