The fires have burned through hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest and plantations in Sumatra, Borneo and Papua, and caused air pollution to surge locally, as well as in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Timor-Leste.
Timor-Leste’s government said on Wednesday it was necessary to close schools “to protect the health of students, teachers and other members of the educational community, given current air quality conditions”.
It urged families to keep children indoors and advised citizens to wear masks if venturing out.
Vitaliano da Costa Calapes, an 18-year-old student at St Ignatius Loyola College, said he was preparing for upcoming exams.
“We are staying at home, but we are continuing to study … We’re facing our final exams,” he said.
“We believe in the coming days there will be no pollution and school will return to normal, that’s what we hope,” he added.
Felicidade Alves dos Santos Martins, whose daugher Febrianti was home from middle school, said the pollution had been even worse earlier in the week.
“It felt like smoke from fires was covering all of Dili and the mountains,” she said.
“This pollution is very dangerous, it can make us sick.”
