The total loss of land was estimated at a million acres, and the resulting smog made 20 million people ill. Fires were apparently ignited by logging companies Indonesia, already battered by a currency and banking crisis, was the worst affected by smog and fire-related damage. Agricultural output plummeted, health and medical bills skyrocketed, and there was a sharp decrease in tourism - a key source of foreign currency. Transportation was disrupted by collisions on the roads and at sea, and a number of air disasters were blamed on poor visibility caused by the smoke. And the economic crisis exacerbates the environmental one.
Employees become ill or spend time fighting the fires.
And with their workplaces forced to shut, people cut down trees for money and plantation companies attempt to recoup their losses by clearing more land for crops. Out of control The region's ministers agreed in 1997 that the only way to avoid a repeat of the environmental disaster was to prevent the fires from being started in the first place. But by 1998, the fires reached such a scale that the only thing that could put them out was the arrival of the rains. In December 1997, Indonesia announced a crackdown on new investment in palm oil plantations and individual companies known to have used burning to clear land. But the fires were burning again just two months later.