NOAA FINDS FIVE HOT SPOTS

Barabai, S Kalimantan, Sept. 12 (ANTARA) - NOAA's earth heat detecting satellite located five hot spots in Hulu Sungai Tengah (HST) regency, South Kalimantan.

The hot spots had been located in Labuan Amas Selatan (LAS), Pandawan, Haruyan, Labuan Amas Utara (LAU) and Barabai subdistricts, head of the local forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries agency, M Rusdiyanto said Saturday.

"The hot spots were found in the May-September 2009 period," he said in Barabai, capital of HST, 165 kilometers north of Banjarmasin.

He said, however, the five hot spots were not located in forests.

"Data that we have received from the forestry ministry and the forest fires control directorate, show that the hot spots were located in areas for other purposes (APL)," he said.

"The located hot spots may not be fires, but rather fires still raging in the ground," he added.

Right now, fires are raging in several valleys, such as in Sungai Buluh and Binjai Pemangkih in LAU subdistrict, and they are not too big so that the current haze may come from these fires.

It was also presumed that the haze now blanketing the HST came from other areas.

The haze may be caused by forest fire in HST, if it razed the thick forests in three subdistricts of Batang Alai Timur (BAT), Hantakan and Haruyan, which have protected forests, production forests, conversion production forests and conservation areas.