Mount Sinabung Eruption Evacuates 615 Residents and Cancels 21 Flights as Fires Burn in Sumatra and Kalimantan

Indonesia's disaster agency said 615 residents have moved to shelters after Mount Sinabung erupted in North Sumatra, Antara reported. The Karo district government said it is providing basic supplies to the evacuees.

The ash has already reached commercial aviation. PT Angkasa Pura Aviasi, which operates Kualanamu International Airport near Medan, cancelled 21 flights, citing flight safety. Volcanic ash damages jet engines, so cancellations follow eruptions automatically and last as long as the plume sits across the approach paths.

Separately, President Prabowo Subianto summoned the chiefs of the military and the national police for briefings on efforts to contain forest and land fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. The Health Ministry said it is deploying an emergency response for elderly people affected by smoke. Fires in those two regions burn through peatland and plantation areas, which is why they produce dense haze and why the response is treated as a security matter as well as an environmental one.

Two simultaneous events in the same set of provinces put pressure on the same logistics: airports, roads, shelter capacity and health services. Indonesia is the world's largest palm oil producer and a significant coal and nickel exporter, so disruption in Sumatra and Kalimantan reaches commodity markets through mine and plantation access and through port and air links rather than through any single facility.