Jakarta, Sept. 17 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Self-Defense Forces has started work to extinguish forest fires in western Kalimantan, Indonesia. The Ground SDF’s CH-47 helicopters started spraying river water scooped into large buckets Wednesday. According to Japan’s Defense Ministry, it is the SDF’s first firefighting operation outside of the country. The operation was slated to begin Sunday, but was delayed due to smoke from the fires reducing visibility. The fire situation in Kalimantan started to worsen around August, leading Indonesian authorities to seek support from Japan under the two countries’ defense cooperation agreement. The Southeast Asian country has been hit with a string of forest fires recently, with more than 200,000 hectares of land being damaged in the blazes between January and July this year, according to the Indonesian Forestry Ministry. The fires, caused mainly by open burning for land clearing, are believed to have spread because of the effect of the El Nino phenomenon. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
