![\"Lou](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JGIGH0_2025_web_images_36_png.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nWildfires worsened overnight on Lou Island in Papua New Guinea, with local authorities saying at least half of the islands forests are gone.<\/p>\n
The fires, which have been ongoing island-wide since early last week, broke through ridgelines towards Rei village overnight, spreading fast and wide through to the morning.<\/p>\n
Local government official David Putulan said with drought conditions and warm winds, and locals lacking the proper equipment, they are fighting a losing battle.<\/p>\n
“It’s practically impossible to put on the fire by our efforts,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We need higher level intervention, like choppers and other types of technology – it’s already an impossible situation.”<\/p>\n
It comes as El Ni\u00f1o upends ordinarily tropical climate throughout New Guinea and its islands. Putulan said Lou, one of the Admiralty Islands, had never experienced a fire of this scale before.<\/p>\n
“The fire index around this area is so high that anything is flammable, including even green leaves.<\/p>\n
“It’s a heavily forested island, but because it’s a volcanic island and there are steep ridges, and a lot of the vegetation is creeping plants and cover crops, it creates a lot of fuel for the fire.”<\/p>\n
Local responders on the ground have said they are using buckets, knives, axes and spades to carry water from the sea, but the steep terrain makes carrying it uphill difficult.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lou Island has battled wildfires for the past week, in what locals call an “unprecedented” disaster.<\/p>\n
Supplied<\/p>\n
Video footage sent to RNZ Pacific on Tuesday morning showed locals, among them children, cloth-masked and dangerously close to flames.<\/p>\n
Community leader Ngenge Sasa, who is helping coordinate firefighting efforts, said they are virtually out of options.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know what we can do anymore,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We are just trying to cut the fire breaks, but the fire is too strong, and local boys with only bush knives and spades and everything, they can’t do much.”<\/p>\n
He added that groundwater sources have dried, meaning people are having to hike uphill with containers of ocean water.<\/p>\n
After a long night, they have no choice but to keep fighting.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully, the fire will die somewhere. We don’t know, but we are just praying.”<\/p>\n
Putulan said the local wards have appealed to Port Moresby, and are now considering going to the Australian and New Zealand High Commissions.<\/p>\n
RNZ Pacific has sought comment from Australia and New Zealand regarding what kind of assistance could be on the table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wildfires worsened overnight on Lou Island in Papua New Guinea, with local authorities saying at least half of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-640473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}