Kathmandu— Indonesian volunteer firefighter Kristoforus Sinyong and a small team of community members are fighting wildfires across Borneo island with limited equipment and no formal training, as the region faces its worst fire season in years amid a strong El Nino weather pattern, according to AFP.

Volunteer Firefighting Efforts

Kristoforus Sinyong, a 27-year-old horticulture instructor from Pulau Manak village, spends his nights battling blazes that have consumed vast swathes of Borneo island. Working alongside a small band of colleagues, he uses gumboots, a small water pump, knapsack sprayers, and six hoses purchased by their environmental NGO, Sangga Bumi Lestari, with its own funds. Medical masks provided by the local clinic are the only additional protective gear available.

"It's not really enough, but that's what we have," Sinyong told AFP. "If we waited until there was enough, the fire might have spread everywhere." The team has no formal firefighting training, relying instead on "learning by doing" as they confront flames that have left thick smog blanketing parts of Borneo and Sumatra, with haze drifting into Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Root Causes and Environmental Challenges

The fires, primarily caused by illegal slash-and-burn land clearing for palm oil plantations, have pockmarked the lush forests of West Kalimantan province with burnt earth. Local farmers blame large companies for the practice, which is illegal except for small-scale agricultural use.

West Kalimantan is also grappling with the effects of this year's intense El Nino weather pattern, described by the United Nations as potentially the strongest in four decades. El Nino typically causes drought in Indonesia, exacerbating fire conditions during the annual dry season. "This week has been the busiest time so far this year," Sinyong said, noting that his team worked through the night Tuesday and Wednesday to pump water from a nearby pond as rivers ran dry.

With nearly 300,000 hectares of land burned in Indonesia this year and experts warning of a fire season potentially matching or exceeding the catastrophic 2015 event, the volunteer efforts remain critical to containing the crisis.

(With inputs from RN)

Originally published on abcnews.com.np.