Nearly 50,000 firefighters and disaster personnel, backed by dozens of helicopters, are fighting wildfires across multiple regions of Indonesia as intensifying El Niño conditions extend an unusually severe dry season. Authorities have declared the situation a national emergency, with more than 107,000 hectares burned nationwide between January and June this year — double the total area lost to fires in all of 2023. Meteorological officials warn that August and September will be the most critical months for fire risk.

The largest single blaze is centred on Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java, where roughly 743 hectares of dry grassland, vegetation and protected Edelweiss flowers have been scorched. The park — home to Mount Bromo, one of Indonesia's most visited volcanic landscapes — has been closed to visitors until further notice to protect the safety of tourists, staff and nearby residents. Flames have reached the Penanjakan viewpoint, a popular tourist spot, though no injuries or building evacuations have been reported. Meanwhile, in Jambi province on Sumatra island, nearly 6,000 firefighters are grappling with fires complicated by deep peat soil, limited water access and strong winds. Peatland fires are also burning across Riau and South Sumatra on Sumatra, as well as Central and South Kalimantan on Borneo island — all among Indonesia's most fire-prone regions.

Authorities have been unable to deploy cloud-seeding operations, a technique that uses salt particles dispersed into suitable clouds to induce rainfall, because meteorological monitoring has found no rain-bearing clouds over the affected areas. With that option ruled out, firefighting relies entirely on water-bombing aircraft and ground crews. Indonesia's Forestry Minister visited Mount Bromo on Sunday to oversee operations and urged the public to avoid any activity that could ignite new fires, including discarding cigarette butts or clearing land through burning.

The crisis is being driven in large part by El Niño, the naturally occurring climate phenomenon that alters wind patterns, air pressure and rainfall across the globe, typically bringing drier conditions to Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Indonesia's national weather agency, BMKG, had warned that this dry season would be more intense and prolonged than usual. The same El Niño cycle contributed to making 2023 and 2024 the two hottest years ever recorded globally, according to the United Nations. For Indonesia — a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands straddling the equator — the combination of structural fire risk from peatlands and amplified drought conditions poses a recurring and worsening challenge that scientists say is likely to intensify as global temperatures continue to rise.