554 acres burnt in 178 Sarawak wildfires

Sarawak firefighters battling forest fires including in jungles that are as far as 50km from the nearest fire station. -Picture courtesy of Fire and Rescue Dept

MIRI: Some 554 acres (224ha) of forests throughout Sarawak have been burnt in 178 different wildfires since Aug 2.

The latest statistics from the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) showed that in the past 24 hours, firefighting teams statewide had been tackling 15 such wildfires.

The wildfires are in Miri, Kuching, Sri Aman, Sibu, Mukah, Song and Bintulu districts.

According to the Bomba Sarawak operation centre, there was a huge wildfire raging in Sri Aman over an area of some 100 acres (one acre is about the size of one football field).

This fire was in a deep and remote area, some 50km away from the nearest fire station.