This happened in Indonesia during each of the past three years, destroying thousands of hectares of forest, including valuable reintroduction habitat for orangutans. In 1998, less than 27,000 orangutans were believed left in the wild on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Numerous fires surrounded the Balikpapan Orangutan Survival Foundation Reintroduction Center in Sungai Wain Nature Reserve, at Wanariset Station in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. Another 226 orangutans were being rehabilitated for release, in a facility that housed about 80 before the fires began. Large machinery cannot be used in the reserve, because it would be as damaging as the fires, and would open the area to illegal logging and poaching.
Coal fires are extinguished with hand labor.
Sometimes help comes from places you would least expect it. This technical assistance, training and some equipment were funded by the East Asia and Pacific Environmental Initiative of the U.S. Department of State. Four Indonesian fire-training instructors traveled to OSM offices in Pittsburgh in November 1998 to develop a coal fire suppression training course for Indonesia. Indonesian trainees included employees of provincial and national governments, mining companies, forest concession holders, and the Orangutan Reintroduction Center at Wanariset Samboja. Immediately following the training course, American instructors assisted Indonesian trainees in suppressing coal seam fires.