Bush, Forest Fires Raging in Parts of Malaysia

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, February 17, 2002

Bush, Forest Fires Raging in Parts of Malaysia

The raging bush and forest fires, made worse by the dry spell in the past 45 days, have burnt 2,068 hectares of forest vegetation in several parts of Malaysia.

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The raging bush and forest fires, made worse by the dry spell in the past 45 days, have burnt 2,068 hectares of forest vegetation in several parts of Malaysia.

According to figures released by the country's Fire and Rescue Department, bush fires were reported in nine states, affecting some 5,000 hectares of land nationwide.

So far, some 1,000 firemen who have managed to extinguish fires covering 1,619 hectares of land have to douse the fires in the remaining areas.

Abdul Razak Muda, Fire Superintendent at the department's operations unit, said Pahang State in central Malaysia was hardly hit by the fires accounting for the largest affected area of 1,246 hectares, followed by states of Selangor, Johor, Negeri Sembilan and Kedah.

In an area near Kuantan, capital of Pahang, a peat fire was raging in an oil palm plantation belonging to the State Agricultural Development Authority for the past 10 days, causing loses of about 2.25 million ringgit (592 million U.S.dollars). The peat fire, which originated at a forest near the plantation, has spread to it after being blown by strong winds, according to a local official.

However, by Friday, the firemen had managed to put out some 85 percent of the blaze in the plantation, the official said, adding they were still keeping a close watch on the area as prevailing strong winds and the current hot weather could restart the fire.

"This is the worst ever peat fire to hit the plantation in recent years," manager of the plantation Ramli Abdul Rahman said.

In Negeri Sembilan State, the fire brigade has received a total of 496 calls in the last two weeks about bush, forest and farmland fires in the state. Its Director Othman Abdullah said, "This represents an increase of 334 calls compared to 162 calls for the whole of last month and so there is a 200 percent increase."

He said the increase in the number of forest, bush and farmland fires was due to the current dry spell, and the Fire and Rescue Department had frozen the leave of its personnel and they were working round the clock to put out the fires in several places.

Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting said Saturday the extent of damage caused by the bush and forest fires made this year's disaster the worst ever in the country.

"We hope it can be solved within two weeks provided the farmers and land owners stop burning their land (for cultivation)," he added.

To contain the situation, the Fire and Rescue Department, assisted by other government departments, is carrying out daily aerial checks on bush fires, in addition to using satellite images of hot spots. The Environment Department has planned to do cloud seeding in the affected areas.

Meanwhile, the government is taking stern actions to deal with anyone found guilty of opening burning. The offender can be fined up to 500,000 ringgit (131,000 U.S. dollars) or jail for five years or both for the same offence under the Environment Quality Act.

As the current hot and dry spell in parts of the country is expected to continue until the end of next month, the firemen are still facing tough jobs.

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