Indonesian teenage ‘Superman’ joins fight against wildfires

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Dressed as his favourite superhero, 17-year-old Indonesian teenager Rudiyansah has joined volunteers battling wildfires across Borneo island.

The Southeast Asian country has been fighting widespread fires that have covered parts of the island with thick smog. Borneo is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Rudiyansah’s red and blue Superman costume has stood out against the scorched landscape around Palangkaraya, where he helps a local volunteer firefighting group established by his father to tackle smouldering peatland.

The teenager has been helping his father fight fires in his free time since 2023. This year, he decided to wear the Superman costume while working, attracting widespread attention to the firefighting effort.

Rudiyansah said wearing the costume was “just for fun”, but videos of him using a hose to wet vegetation have gone viral, earning millions of views and the nickname “forest hero” from Indonesia’s forestry minister.

“I’m really happy because I can help locals, even though it feels really tiring,” Rudiyansah told AFP while wearing his cape.

He said he wets the costume slightly before entering the fields to reduce the risk of it catching fire and washes it every night.

His father, Mulyadi, said the haze during this year’s fire season was the worst his volunteer group had experienced since it was formed in 2020.

“At home, he’s like a normal kid,” Mulyadi said. He added that Rudiyansah would ask to join whenever he saw his father preparing to go out and fight fires.

A shortage of water has been one of the main challenges for firefighters, as wells and other water sources have dried up during the drought, Mulyadi said.

Government figures showed that fires burned more than 200,000 hectares of land between January and July, an area about three times the size of Jakarta.

The area burned has already exceeded the levels recorded during previous El Nino seasons in 2019 and 2023.

The government has ordered additional troops and aircraft to help contain the fires and the resulting smog, which has spread to Malaysia.

El Nino is a natural climate phenomenon that can bring drought to Indonesia and increase wildfire risks. Human-caused climate change can intensify its effects by making extreme weather conditions more severe.

Rudiyansah, who hopes to become a forest ranger, urged firefighters and volunteers across Indonesia to remain determined in their efforts.

“To volunteers and firefighters across Indonesia, keep up the spirit in the fight against the flames,” he said.