Dept battles to contain Gunung Tempurung bushfire

IPOH: The Perak Fire and Rescue Department battled hard to contain a bushfire that had consumed more than 4ha of forest on the slopes of Gunung Tempurung, located near the Sungai Siput Selatan new village in Kampar.

The department’s Zone 1 chief Ruhisha Haris said firemen had difficulties accessing the limestone mountain as the slopes there were nearly vertical, at between 80 and 90 degrees.

Ruhisha said the department received reports about the fire at about 7.47pm on Saturday.

“A team was immediately deployed to inspect the mountain on the night itself. We could see smoke around us but there was nothing much we could do due to low visibility at the affected area,” he said.

Ruhisha added that the team scouted the mountain again yesterday on a helicopter to get a better picture of the fire, which is not totally doused yet on account of the difficult terrain and dry weather.

“We managed to carry out operations to prevent the fire from spreading,” he said, adding that a task force has been formed to monitor the progress.

“Rain is expected over the next few days, and I hope the downpour could help to douse the fire,” said Ruhisha, who revealed that the site of the fire was about half a kilometre away from the nearest settlements, and as such, posed no immediate danger to anyone.

“Preliminary investigations showed that the fire occurred due to natural causes,” he said.