Four Helicopters and Two Planes Fight Riau's Fires

Jakarta (Antara) - The Indonesian government has deployed four helicopters and two plans to fight forest and peat land fires in the Riau province, an official said. "The helicopters are conducting water bombing while the planes are used for seeding rain," said the National Disaster Mitigation Agency's (BNPB) Head of Information, Data and Public Relations, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho here on Monday. To fight the fires in Riau, Sutopo said, the agency sent three Bolco helicopters, the Air Force one Collibri helicopter and a Herculer C-130 while the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) a rain-maker version plane. The fire fighting operation is still ongoing, Sutopo explained. Until Monday (June 24), the rain making, done by pouring salt (NaCl) into potential Cumulus clouds, has been carried out twice on Saturday and Sunday. The Hercules C-130 had dropped two tons of salt over Duri in Dumai and Sei Pekning regions. Sutopo said it was a difficult job because clouds were difficult to produce above forest and land fires area due to aerosol blocking from fire smoke. "But, we kept trying and rain has already fallen in some areas in Dumai," he said. Water bombing has been done by Bolco helicopters for 14 sorties dropping 7,000 liters of water on fire spots in Mandau found by the Air Force's Collibri helicopter. (*)