U.S. Officials Recommend Extending Program to Put out Fires
11/6/97
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Headline: U.S. Officials Recommend Extending Program to Put out Fires
Source: The Associated Press
Date: 11/6/97
Author: Irwan Firdaus
Copyright 1997: The Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) Washington should extend a program
that drops loads of water on wildfires which are producing a smoke
haze across much of Southeast Asia, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Three specially modified C-130 planes belonging to the Wyoming
National Guard have been "water-bombing'' the fires since last
month.
Their assignment was scheduled to end Sunday but with many
forests still burning and monsoon rains expected to be delayed,
Indonesia has asked the United States to extend their stay.
On Thursday, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and other
senior U.S. officials, including Jan Lodal, an undersecretary at
the Department of Defense, visited the C-130 crews and flew over
several Indonesian islands that are shrouded in haze.
"We are both prepared to recommend to Washington that we do
extend this operation for a few more weeks and try to bring us
close to the rainy season,'' Lodal said.
Indonesian meteorologists say monsoon rains that would douse
many of the fires have been delayed by El Nino, an abnormal weather
pattern over the Pacific Ocean.
The fires have produced a thick smoke, raising air pollution to
unhealthy levels in much of Indonesia and parts of Malaysia,
Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand.
Talbott is touring Asian nations prior to the U.N. climate
conference in Kyoto, Japan, from Dec. 1-10.