KOTA KINABALU: Air quality levels in Sabah's south-western Kimanis town improved to moderate levels on Friday (March 15), a day after spiking to unhealthy levels.
According to the Environment Department website, the air pollutant index (API) reading was 91 at 11am on Friday (March 15) as firemen put out localised fires in areas under the Papar and Beaufort districts.
Kimanis' air turned unhealthy with an API reading of 125 at 11pm on Wednesday (March 13), rising to 155 as of 1pm Thursday (March 14) before readings started to show a downward trend by the end of the day.
The API dropped to below 100, or moderate pollution level, from 3am on Friday.
Kota Kinabalu and its surrounding areas are also seeing air quality improvement with an API reading of 70 as of 11am on Friday after hovering between 85 and 98 on Thursday.
Tawau and Labuan remained at moderate level with an API reading of slightly above 50 while air quality levels in Sandakan and Keningau remained good.
Firemen have been battling at least 16 fires involving open burning as well jungle and brush fires in Papar, Beaufort, Kota Belud, Tuaran and Kota Kinabalu.
These localised fires contributed to the spike in hazy conditions in several areas on Sabah's west coast.
API readings of between zero and 50 are categorised as good, 51 to 100 moderate, 101 to 200 unhealthy, 201 to 300 very unhealthy, while 300 and above are hazardous.
