Jakarta, June 3 -- The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry is ramping up firefighting operations to tackle forest and land fires across four Sumatran provinces: Aceh, Riau, Jambi, and South Sumatra.

Head of the ministry's Sumatra Forest Fire Control Agency, Ferdian Krisnanto, said in a statement confirmed on Wednesday that rapid response measures are underway to suppress the fires in those regions.

"Our focus is to respond quickly to every hotspot report, contain the spread of the fires, and ensure thorough cooling operations. In peatland areas, embers can smolder beneath the surface even after the fire has been extinguished," he said.

Therefore, he affirmed that each deployed team continues to conduct double-checks, cooling operations, pr...