Indonesia closes Mount Bromo national park as wildfire expands in East Java

Indonesian authorities have closed access to Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java after a fast-moving wildfire spread across land near Mount Bromo. The closure was announced on Saturday and will remain in place until further notice. The park sits near an active volcano and is a major tourist destination, making the disruption significant for visitors and local operations.

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Officials said the blaze began on Monday and had grown to about 176 hectares by Sunday, up from roughly 60 hectares on Thursday. The park chief, Rudijanta Tjahja Nugraha, said the closure was intended to protect visitors, staff and people in surrounding areas. The park operator also said people who had already bought tickets during the closure could request refunds.

Indonesia has deployed hundreds of firefighters, disaster management personnel, police officers, soldiers, park rangers and volunteers to try to contain the fire. Water-bombing helicopters and water-spraying drones have also been sent to the area. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said steep terrain, strong winds and the fire's location in forested areas were making it difficult for crews to reach the blaze on foot.

The incident comes as Indonesia prepares for what officials expect to be an unusually intense dry season this year, in part because of the El Nino weather pattern. That pattern is associated with warmer sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific and can contribute to drier conditions in parts of the region. The scale of the fire also adds to wider concerns about land fires in Indonesia, where officials said about 1,070 square kilometres of land had burned this year, more than twice the area recorded in 2023.