PALANGKA RAYA, Indonesia: A bus fitted out with oxygen tanks is providing a sanctuary in a city on Indonesia's Borneo island where people are choking from forest-fire-induced haze and the blazes show no sign of letting up.
Indonesia regularly battles seasonal forest fires, predominantly on Sumatra and Borneo islands, but this year the infernos are the most intense in more than a decade.
An intense El Nino weather phenomenon has driven up temperatures, leaving the country's vast forests and peatlands more vulnerable to fires that have turned skies orange across Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
As respiratory illnesses increased in the Central Kalimantan city of Palangka Raya, the local government provided an 'oxygen bus' replete with oxygen tanks and medical professionals who offer residents a chance to be hooked up to a small oxygen tube around their nose for 5 to 10 minutes at a time.
