Smoke from Indonesia’s worst wildfires in years is spreading across Southeast Asia

PONTIANAK, Indonesia — Indonesian housewife Mimi Marlina rode a motorbike through thickening haze blanketing the city of Pontianak on Borneo island, making a foray to buy groceries and supplies as the Southeast Asian nation battles raging forest fires.

“We can still hold it off with medicines, but I’m concerned that if this persists, it will lead to worse illnesses,” said the masked 45-year-old mother of two children who are battling respiratory problems, from coughing and sore throats to fever.

The province of West Kalimantan on Borneo, home to Pontianak, is one of the areas worst hit by Indonesia’s most intense wildfires in 11 years as “super-El Niño” weather conditions drive up temperatures and cause punishing droughts.

Despite wearing a mask, Mimi said she herself was laboring for breath in the widespread haze and pollution spikes, which often push air quality to hazardous levels.

Volunteers are going door-to-door in the province, handing out cylinders of life-giving oxygen to residents and firefighters struggling to breathe, in a campaign called “Rumah Oksigen,” or Oxygen House.

The air has also turned unhealthy in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia because of the transboundary smog, often called haze in Southeast Asia’s humid weather, for a mix of…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/world