663 cases of bush fires till Sept this year — Fire Department

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SIBU: The state Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) recorded a total of 663 cases of bush fires until September this year.

There were 522 cases of bush fire for the whole of last year.

“A majority of the reported cases (bush fires) occurred in sub urban and residential areas. My suggestion is for people to control their burning,” the department’s assistant director Farhan Sufyan Borhan said.

Farhan Sufyan cautioned that open burning fanned by the dry weather could cause fire to spread rapidly over a large area.

In an earlier interview, he revealed that they usually used only water pumps to fight peat swamp fires.

Meanwhile, during an interview last week, a source from Natural Resources and Environment Board Sarawak (NREB) had warned members of the public against backyard burning.

“It is a total ban for backyard burning in residential areas and not just confined to the prevailing situation,” he said.

He noted there were those who carried out backyard burning during day or even night time.

“But such activity had been slapped with a total ban and both NREB and the local councils can take stern actions on those who fail to toe the line,” he said.

As such, the source called on members of the public to give their fullest cooperation to refrain from any backyard burning that could possibly worsen the present situation.

Last week, a bird’s eye view from the 24th floor of Wisma Sanyan saw the whole of the riverine town engulfed in thick haze.