Indonesian Haze Closes Schools and a Deadly Turkey Wildfire

Smoke was the story on two continents today. Indonesia moved another city's schools online as haze thickened, Turkey lost a volunteer to a fire on its Mediterranean coast, and in the United States the news was about records, land and money rather than active flames.

Indonesian haze pushes 1.4 million students into online classes

Schools in Palembang, the capital of Indonesia's South Sumatra province, switched to remote learning on Wednesday as haze from forest and peatland fires pushed air pollution to unhealthy levels. As the Associated Press reports, the emergency measure covers more than 250,000 students at 1,030 schools, and Mayor Ratu Dewa said the thickening smoke posed health risks to children including acute respiratory infections.

About 12,800 schools across Sumatra and Borneo remain closed, according to government data in the same report. Save the Children said haze intensified by El Nino-driven dry conditions has forced more than 1.4 million students into online learning. The smoke has drifted as far as the Philippines, more than 500 miles away, and breached Malaysia's emergency-level threshold, prompting authorities to declare an emergency last week in a town in Sarawak state.

A volunteer firefighter dies in Turkey's Antalya province

Hasan Kahya, a resident of the Aksu district in Turkey's Antalya province, died on Wednesday after helping local emergency services fight a large wildfire. The Associated Press reports that he suffered a heart attack after being affected by the smoke and later died in hospital, according to the district's mayor, Isa Yildirim.

The fire began Monday in Aksu and, fanned by strong winds, spread into the neighboring Kepez district, forcing hundreds of residents from their homes. Two people were hospitalized with leg burns on Tuesday and six more were treated for smoke inhalation. Turkey's forestry directorate said the blaze's intensity had been reduced by Wednesday, with more than 1,000 firefighters, 169 trucks, nine helicopters and at least three planes deployed. Firefighters were also working a separate wildfire in the Kozan district of southern Adana province, where hundreds of residents have been evacuated.

New York's mayor says former leaders lied about the air after 9/11

A day after the city released about 170,000 pages of records on air quality after the World Trade Center attacks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused previous New York City leaders of lying about whether the air was safe. KFF Health News reports that Mamdani declined to name the leaders he believed had lied; at the time of the attacks Rudy Giuliani was mayor and Christine Todd Whitman was EPA administrator, and both assured residents the air was safe to breathe.

As CNN reports, the documents include internal memos in which officials raised alarms about environmental testing between October and November 2001 that regularly detected elevated levels of toxins, including asbestos. A searchable portal now provides access to the records, and the city says it will add more material on a rolling basis.

A North Carolina peatland is being rewetted to keep it from burning

Scientists and investors are working to restore a 23-square-mile tract of peatland in North Carolina's Inner Banks. The Associated Press reports that 50 miles of ditches dug decades ago for an abandoned farming venture drained much of the water from peat up to 15 feet deep, leaving the site vulnerable to drought and wildfire and allowing it to emit 130,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Peat is the same fuel burning under Indonesia's haze this week. Pantheon Regeneration plans to restore the water table and then sell carbon credits to help fund a goal of preserving a million acres of peatland from Virginia to Florida.

A Napa winery rebuilt after the Atlas fire files for bankruptcy

Signorello Estate, the Napa Valley winery whose tasting room burned in the 2017 Atlas fire, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month. The Los Angeles Times reports that the company and seven affiliated entities believe they owe creditors between $10 million and $50 million, and that the property faces a foreclosure sale over a $37-million outstanding loan.

Owner Ray Signorello Jr. rebuilt after the fire spared the family's 40 acres of vines, opening a hillside "cave" winery in 2024 that an engineering firm said cost $20 million to build. Insurance proceeds covered only 25% of reconstruction costs. The bill for a wildfire keeps arriving long after the smoke clears.

Sources

Indonesia's wildfire haze disrupts learning for 1.4 million students — The Associated Press
Volunteer firefighter dies battling wildfire in Turkey — The Associated Press
NYC Mayor Says Former City Leaders Lied About Toxic Air After 9/11 Attacks — KFF Health News
What we know about NYC's newly released 9/11 records revealing officials misled public about air safety — ABC17News.com
Takeaways from AP story on a major effort to restore peatland in North Carolina — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Napa winery that rose from wildfire now faces bankruptcy and millions in debt — Los Angeles Times

Canairy aggregates publicly reported air-quality and wildfire news and summarizes it in plain English, with links to the original sources. This is educational information, not medical or emergency advice. In a wildfire or air-quality emergency, follow guidance from local authorities.