Indonesia's forest fire death toll reaches 24

Baku. 30 October. REPORT.AZ/ Forest and agriculture fires in Indonesia killed 10 more people, bringing the total death toll to 24, Report informs referring to the foreign media, a government spokesman said.

The fire, which started last month, may not come to an end before the end of this month, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster management agency.

"Ten people have been dead in Sumatra Island and Borneo Island," Sutopo told Xinhua via the phone, adding that the other seven people hiking in the Lawu Mountain, Java, were killed when they were trapped in a forest fire earlier this month.

Indonesia is carrying out the biggest firefighting operation with aids from foreign countries, deploying over 22,000 soldiers, police and officers to douse the blaze spreading from the west to the east of the country.

On Friday President Joko Widodo ordered deployment of more troops to the hot spots.

However, due to the large territory and a lack of devices, especially the impacts of the El Nino phenomenon, "it is impossible to terminate the forest fire within one or two weeks," Sutopo said.