Wildfire might not seem to be a severe disaster to human. In reality, number of deaths is low, but the casualties are massive. The year 1997 and 1998 are the years with very strong El Nino or extreme dry and hot weather, weather suitable for a nice fire outbreak in the tropical forest of Indonesia. (5.) It became the fire season for Indonesia. Most of the wildfires in Indonesia are caused by human errors. It is a country where agriculture plays a big role in producing the economy as well as creating fire which may last for months. (2.)
During those years of drought, the soil poor are almost impossible to grow any crops on. Fire is the cheapest available way for farmers to fertilize the poor soil and to forest and land clearing, but due to the dry and hot weather, fire became unstoppable and raged through the tropical rain forest and the grassland. Sumatra, Borneo and Kalimantan blazed for months between 1997 and 1998 and caused long term effects on the world. (2.)
The blaze affects the whole world by polluting the atmosphere with massive amount of carbon dioxide. The picture above by NASA shows the amount of toxic carbon monoxide pollution in the year of the wildfire. In that year, the growth rate of carbon in the atmosphere doubled which will have a great impact to the world. In total, it releases about 2 billion tons of carbon into the atmospere which is almost 40 percent of the annually global carbon produced fossil fuel. The dust, smoke and vapor covered the area about the size of Europe. (5.)
As you can see, the amount polluting carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and the haze will cause severe health problems to living things in the area. (2.)No death was reported when the disaster occurred, but over 20 million people breathed in highly polluted air which will cause long-term health problems. People in Indonesia and Malaysia were told to remain indoors while schools, offices and factories were closed. Flights were canceled and shipping was stuck for months. In Kalimantan alone, 900,000 hectares of land had been burned. For the whole of Indonesia, about 10 million hectares of national forest were destroyed as well as disturbing the wildlife in those areas. It destructed the habitats of some endangered species such as bears, tigers, rhinos, elephants and orangutans. (4.) The fire provided nutrient for the sea to produce red tide which destroy coral reefs in Mentawai Islands. People and wildlife would have to adapt to their new way of life. The total casualties costed 17 billion US dollars. (1.)
Even though vast area of land and forest were burned, people still decided to stay instead of evacuating. On the other hand, the fire returned nutrient back to the soil which makes farming very efficient, and people are willing to take the risk. (2.)
Since 1987, Indonesia has been working with Malaysia and Singapore in a workshop hosted by the German Government. They outlined the "Long-term Integrated Fire Management for Indonesia." They built up fire management facilities in East-Kalimantan including fire detection, fire danger rating anf trained personnel to prevent and fight fires. The fire management capabilities alone would not be enough to prevent fire. The government wanted fire to be completely banned because the main cause of fire is that people use fire carelessly. (2.)
Sources :
1.) http://www.disastercenter.com/disaster/TOP100C.html
2.) http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/iffn/country/id/id_12.htm
3.) http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0888-8892(199810)12:5%3C954:EEOWOL%3E2.0.CO;2-U
4.) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2002/2002-11-08-06.asp
5.) http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/elnino_wildfire.html
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