The volunteers risking their lives to defuse Indonesia’s wildfire 'carbon bombs'

The sky over Borneo is heavy with smog, and the air tastes of burnt peat. Thousands of volunteer firefighters, many from the Dayak or Banjar peoples, keep pushing against raging peat fires that have carbonised 200,000 hectares of forest and farmland.

The peat swamps of Kalimantan store down to 20 metres of ancient carbon. When dragged dry by logging, plantations and drainage, they become tinder, and once ignited, they release massive pulses of carbon dioxide, methane and carbon monoxide—earning them the nickname “carbon bomb.”

Volunteer firefighters like Dwi Sujatmoko and Fahrin Ramadhianto work in the blistering heat, breathing toxic millimetre‑sized particulates that can reach the bloodstream. Two volunteers have died recently from battle‑related exhaustion; dozens more are hospitalized with respiratory ailments.

To suppress the flames, crews dig ponds, canals and borewells to saturate the dry peat, and some drive long‑reach water hoses into the ground. They sleep in trenches to keep fighting at night, and the air quality near the front line is so bad it is described as “like tear gas.”

While the fires spread, the haze has already worsened air quality across Southeast Asia. Indonesia’s Health Ministry linked more than 50,000 respiratory cases to the fires, including over 12,000 children under five. Hospitals in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Brunei have seen a surge in admissions.

The crisis originates in decades of land‑use change: since the Suharto era, rainforests and peatlands were opened for logging and palm oil plantations. The drainage of peatland has simultaneously increased fire risk and turned the land into a continual carbon emitter, even when not burning.

At present, water shortages threaten the firefighting effort. Volunteers stress that they are exhausted, far from family, yet continue because “we have a duty.” They hope for imminent rain to help quell the blaze.

With the fires continuing, the volunteer firefighters’ bravery highlights both the dire environmental stakes and the urgent need for systemic change in land management and climate policy.