Al Jazeera English, on Climate, 30 October 2026

6.0out of 10Serious

Smoke from wildfires killed 3,500 people in Indonesia in September: Report

Tap a highlight to see why it matters.2 findings

Toxic smoke from wildfires killed 3,560 people in Indonesia last month, according to a new report. The study, released by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) on Thursday, found that air pollution-related deaths in Indonesia surged by 42 percent in September, rising from an estimated 3,740 people killed in August to 5,310. Recommended Stories list of 3 items list 1 of 3 Malaysia’s Firefly cancels flights to Singapore over haze from Indonesia list 2 of 3 Sky turns orange as wildfires rage across Indonesia list 3 of 3 Four killed as Indonesia battles worst forest fires in more than a decade end of list Toxic smoke from forest and land fires caused 3,560 deaths last month, the report said.

“Chronic, non-fire emissions from urban and industrial air pollution sources” caused another 1,750 deaths, the Helsinki-based think tank found. Toxic fire smoke accounted for 94-99 percent of air pollution-related deaths in Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, and more than 80 percent on Sumatra, the regions worst affected by the fires, the report notes. Deaths on the southern island of Java, meanwhile, remained largely tied to urban and industrial sources, the study found.

It added that the number of citizens exposed to “unhealthy” to “hazardous” air quality reached a record peak of 58 million in September. “Citizens inhaling hazardous-level air in Kalimantan alone nearly tripled from 2.8 million to 6.4 million during the worst days of the month,” it found. , which have led to deforestation and sent toxic smog across the Southeast Asian archipelago.

It has also raised pollution levels in neighbouring countries, including Malaysia , Singapore, the Philippines and East Timor. Advertisement The government in Jakarta is facing increasing criticism for its response to the fires. On Wednesday, it defended its approach, noting it has deployed more than 72,000 people to carry out cloud-seeding and firefighting operations, activated more than 2,100 doctors and health workers in hard-hit areas, and distributed 5.3 million masks.

Read the original article on aljazeera.com (opens in a new tab)
What we found (2)

Al Jazeera reports a CREA study finding that wildfire smoke killed 3,560 people in Indonesia in September, and its figures add up. But it puts the fires down to El Nino and drought without a word that warming makes such fire weather worse. It also says the fires were sparked by drought, dropping its own earlier reporting that the haze was blamed on land clearing by palm oil plantation owners.

  1. Leaves out the climate link

    Serious

    “Amid an El Nino weather pattern, Indonesia has been dealing with devastating wildfires sparked by severe drought”

    Why this matters
    The words "Amid an El Nino weather pattern" and "severe drought" explain the deadly fire season only through natural weather, and nothing in the article mentions warming.
    The impression it gives
    A reader believes these record fires and the drought behind them are purely a product of a natural weather cycle.
    The context
    Human-caused warming has made fire weather and agricultural drought more frequent and more severe. The article, which reports thousands of deaths from the fires, never says so.

    How we know

    • On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
    • Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “warming”.

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Amid an El Nino weather pattern and severe drought, made more likely by a warming climate, Indonesia has been dealing with devastating wildfires.

  2. Drops what it reported before

    Minor

    “sparked by severe drought”

    Why this matters
    The phrase "sparked by severe drought" names drought as what started the fires, so the fires read as a natural event with no human cause.
    The impression it gives
    A reader believes the fires started on their own because of dry weather, and that nobody is responsible for them.
    The context
    Al Jazeera itself reported eight days earlier that most of the haze has been blamed on land clearing by palm oil plantation owners. Other coverage reports that Singapore issued legal notices to seven companies it blames for the fires. Drought fuels the fires, but the outlet's own reporting points to people starting them.

    How we know

    Show it in the article

How other outlets reported it

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