April 22, 2026 | 03:59 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Like a statue, Anasrifitria, 55, stood frozen on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, staring at the charred remains of a blaze that swept through the social forestry area of Sekodi village, Bengkalis subdistrict, Bengkalis Regency, Riau. The Head of the Bina Pertiwi Village Forest Management Agency said that in just three nights, a stretch of peatland roughly the size of the National Monument complex in Jakarta turned into cracked, blackened earth. In some spots, embers still glowed beneath the surface, and thin white smoke seeped through the fissures.
The flames did not only consume the village forest. Towering twice as high as oil palm trees, the fire also scorched about 20 hectares of community farmland. Shifting winds carried embers into residents' fields. Oil palm, rubber, and sago—crops cultivated over years—were burned one by one.
"At first, we thought it wouldn't reach here," Anasrifitria said when contacted on Thursday, April 16, 2026. "But the wind was very strong that night," she said, recalling the incident that had occurred less than a month earlier.
Anasrifitria said the fire, which began in Teluk Lancar village on Saturday, March 28, spread rapidly. It crept through dried canals, crossed village boundaries, and entered Sekodi's social forestry area. Peat more than one meter deep, parched since the start of the dry season, became a kind of highway for the embers. Beneath the ground, the fire burned unseen.
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