Northern Sarawak hit by forest fires

Uphill task: Firefighters battling hard to contain the forest fires in Kuala Baram.

MIRI: Forest fires have so far ravaged at least 404.6ha of land in Kuala Baram district in northern Sarawak – an area roughly the size of 1,000 football fields combined.

As at 2pm yesterday, some 121.4ha (300 acres) of forest were still on fire.

The Air Pollutant Index in the district shot to very unhealthy levels of 300 and 400 yesterday morning as forest fires raged on.

A big fire near the Industrial Training Institute resulted in very dense smoke blown by strong winds into Miri City some 20km away.

Residential houses and commercial centres were hit by dense smog, ashes and strong smell of burnt vegetation.

Sarawak Assistant Minister for Communications Datuk Lee Kim Shin said that the API went up to more than 400 at one point.

As at 3pm, the API was still above 300, he said.

Lee said Kuala Baram has a population of more than 100,000 people.

“The areas affected by the dense smoke are recording high pollutant index. Fire fighters on the ground are doing all they can to contain the flames.

“Aerial water bombings have been increased and we are requesting an even bigger aircraft from the army that can carry at least 6,000 litres of water at a time.

“The worry is that the fires may burn underground since the district has large areas of peat soil,” he said.

Preliminary reports from Bomba indicated that the fires were deliberately set off by people who had trespassed into the forests, he added.

Miri fire chief Supt Law Poh Kiong yesterday morning said the department were resuming aerial water bombing using helicopters while firefighters battle the flames on the ground.

The department had already carried out 60 rounds of aerial water bombing over the past 48 hours but the fires started spreading due to strong winds. Northern Sarawak is being hit by a very hot spell now.