PALANGKA RAYA, Indonesia: A bus fitted out with oxygen tanks is providing a sanctuary in a city on Indonesia's Borneo island where people are choking from forest-fire-induced haze and the blazes show no sign of letting up.
Indonesia regularly battles seasonal forest fires, predominantly on Sumatra and Borneo islands, but this year the infernos are the most intense in more than a decade.
An intense El Nino weather phenomenon has driven up temperatures, leaving the country's vast forests and peatlands more vulnerable to fires that have turned skies orange across Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
As respiratory illnesses increased in the Central Kalimantan city of Palangka Raya, the local government provided an 'oxygen bus' replete with oxygen tanks and medical professionals who offer residents a chance to be hooked up to a small oxygen tube around their nose for 5 to 10 minutes at a time.
"The service is intended to help people access oxygen, particularly those experiencing respiratory problems or who need oxygen support amid unhealthy air quality conditions," the Central Kalimantan provincial health department said on Instagram this week.
Indonesia's air pollution index has shown some areas of Borneo and Sumatra registering pollution levels of over 1,000, with readings of 300 or more already categorised as hazardous.
Respiratory illnesses linked to the fires have risen, with about 350,000 cases from August to Oct 25, the health ministry said. Central Kalimantan reported about 31,000 cases as of Oct 25.
"This is a disaster from nature and there is not much we can do," Oktawina, 44, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said with an oxygen tube hooked to her nose.
Medical staff on the white-and-blue bus recorded patients' details and administered oxygen to residents reporting breathing difficulties. One of them, Yuda, said most residents who came to the bus coughing or had trouble breathing.
Purnasari, 31, another patient on the bus, said: "If I've been out of the house lately I feel tightness and coughing ... because this morning the thick yellowish smoke so my breathing feels tight."
Hundreds of students protested at the office of the provincial governor last week demanding a greater response to the fires, local news website Kompas reported.--REUTERS
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