Malaysia has declared a state of emergency in the Serian Division of Sarawak state after smoke from Indonesian wildfires pushed air pollution to hazardous levels, triggering school and workplace closures across the affected area. King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar consented to the emergency declaration following a formal request from the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's office confirmed. The Air Pollutant Index in Serian — a small agricultural town of around 90,000 people near the border with Indonesia's Kalimantan province, on the island of Borneo — surged to 521, well above the 500 threshold that can warrant a halt to non-essential activities. Sarawak's larger capital, Kuching, also registered a hazardous reading of 311.
Under the emergency order, 647 schools in Serian will remain closed until at least the end of next week, along with government and private offices, plantations, construction sites and quarries. Only essential services will continue to operate. Authorities have extended a cloud-seeding operation, launched earlier this week, through at least Monday, citing forecasts of more favourable cloud formations. Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee chairman Douglas Uggah Embas urged residents to minimise outdoor activities, while stressing the emergency applies to Serian alone and not the broader state.
The haze crisis is spreading well beyond Malaysia's borders. Singapore announced it would issue daily haze advisories after 24-hour air quality readings entered the unhealthy range for the first time since 2023. In the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the suspension of classes in Metro Manila and more than a dozen provinces. Transboundary haze is a recurring seasonal problem in Southeast Asia, where smoke from forest and peatland fires in Indonesia — particularly in Sumatra and Kalimantan — drifts across national borders. Scientists warn that temperatures are expected to peak this month, with hotter and drier conditions likely to intensify the fires further, in what disaster officials are calling the most challenging dry season in a decade, exacerbated by a severe El Niño event.
Indonesia is grappling with the fires on multiple fronts. Satellite data detected 717 hot spots nationwide since 1 August, with 103 recorded in a single 24-hour period. The fires have now reached areas surrounding Nusantara, the country's under-construction new capital in East Kalimantan, with roughly 400 hectares burned in the vicinity. The largest single blaze near the capital site broke out at Bukit Suharto forest park, about 50 kilometres from the city centre. Indonesia has 53 aircraft conducting water-bombing and cloud-seeding operations, with additional aircraft and personnel sent by Japan.
Indonesian authorities have also launched a major law enforcement response. Police have arrested 112 people suspected of deliberately starting fires to clear land across Sumatra and Borneo, a common but illegal practice among local farmers. Five companies have had their business licences suspended over alleged fires within their concessions, and investigators are examining 167 cases involving the deliberate burning of an estimated 4,700 hectares across nine provinces. The combination of enforcement action and aerial firefighting underscores the scale of a crisis that is testing regional cooperation and drawing scrutiny to long-standing land-clearing practices.