Relentless battle: Firefighters working hard to put out the fire in the area around the Kayu Madang landfill site. — Bernama
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Fire and Rescue Department has managed to put out open burning spanning a total area of 3,904.45ha between Jan 1 and Wednesday.
A total of 1,435 fires were reported during that period, said its director Abdul Razak Muda.
He said efforts are currently under way to extinguish fires in a remaining area of 1.49ha in Tuaran.
Most of the open burning, he said, took place in forested areas, covering 2,180.85ha at 578 cases, followed by agricultural land and vegetable farms (911.06ha with 96 cases), shrubs and grassland (714.48ha with 746 cases), and peatland (99.3ha with 43 cases).
“Out of the 27 districts in Sabah, only three districts – Telupid, Tongod and Kalabakan – have not experienced any open burning incidents so far,” he said in a statement to Bernama yesterday.
Kota Belud, he said, recorded the largest area of open burning at 725.8ha, followed by Kuala Penyu with 688.73ha and Tuaran with 616.43ha.
“The fires in Tuaran have yet to be completely extinguished, whereas those in Kota Belud and Kuala Penyu have been successfully put out,” he added.
In the past 24 hours, 43 reports of fires involving 105.05ha of land had been received, said Abdul Razak.Last month, the department reminded the public to refrain from conducting open burning due to Sabah undergoing a dry spell, with rampant forest and bush fires.
