‘Battle stations’ on open burning

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Nor Hisham Mohammad

SIBU: Twenty-two fire stations in Sarawak have put on a 24-hour shift, starting today to beef up manpower to curtail the spiking number of open burning cases.

Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) director Nor Hisham Mohammad disclosed yesterday that their stations from Kuching right up to Bintulu would be on the round-the-clock shift till Aug 3.

“The measure is taken as an effort to increase our manpower due to the hike in the number of open burning cases. The changes will take effect from tomorrow (today) till Aug 3. Miri and Limbang are excluded as the situation there is not critical yet.

“Yesterday (Saturday), we recorded 47 calls across the state, the most number of calls on open burning received in a single day for the month of July.

“There were 40 calls over in the last two days,” Nor Hisham told The Borneo Post yesterday.

From the 47 calls on Saturday, forest fires formed the bulk at 22, bush fires (17) and farm fires (seven), he revealed.

He added that Kuching recorded the most calls with 12 while Sibu and Kota Samarahan had five calls each.

Asked if putting out fires in peat soil areas like those in Bukit Lima posed a problem to firefighters, he said all fires posed a problem.

He said they were faced with low water pressure, coupled with the dry weather. He said this when asked for advice following the rapid jump of API reading in Sibu to 176 at 1pm yesterday from 110 on Saturday.

Nor Hisham advised the public to refrain from any backyard burning or activities that could contribute to the worsening of the present situation.

Meanwhile, smoke was still billowing from bush fires in Bukit Lima Road here yesterday.

Fire was seen levelling the bushes there on Saturday night, clouding the residential area with acrid smoke. Another bush fire was spotted at Upper Lanang Road yesterday.

Meanwhile, Nangka assemblyman Dr Annuar Rapaee advised the public to speedily report to Bomba if they spotted any bush fires.

“They should refrain from outdoor activities if the air quality continues to worsen.”