Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Irma smells the fire before she sees it: a column of thick yellow-tinged smoke rising above the tree line near her small wooden home.
She pulls on heavy rubber boots, checks her equipment and drives into the blaze.
“I am terrified that the flames will reach residential areas. It is extremely dangerous,” the 39-year-old mother said.
Irma, who like many Indonesians only goes by one name, is one of roughly 150 Muslim women who make up Power of Mama, an all-female volunteer firefighting unit.
They fight fires lit by poor farming communities who are burning to clear land the cheapest way they know how.
“We are the ones who feel its effects most,” Irma said. “The haze causes the airports and schools to close, and it makes our community ill. I thought I had to do something about it.”
The group was formed in 2022 by local NGO Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI).
