"Jakarta - The forest fires blanketing Southeast Asia in choking haze are on track to become among the worst on record, NASA has warned, with a prolonged dry season hampering efforts to curb a crisis that has persisted for nearly two decades.

Malaysia, Singapore and large expanses of Indonesia have suffered for weeks from acrid smoke billowing from fires on plantations and peatlands that are being illegally cleared by burning.

Though the crisis grips the region nearly ever year during the dry season, scientists predict the current outbreak could surpass 1997 levels, when out-of-control forest fires sent pollution soaring to record highs in an environmental disaster that cost an estimated USD$9 billion."

AFP had the story October 2, 2015. [2]