MIRI: The thick haze blanketing Miri, especially the Permyjaya area the past few days following the peat soil fire in Kuala Baram has slowly decreased as the Air Pollutant Index (API) at 7am yesterday was down to 116 compared to 245 the day before.
Assistant Minister of Communication Datuk Lee Kim Shin said though the API has gone down by about 50 per cent, the authority will continue to monitor the situation of the peat soil fire to prevent it from continuously burning in this dry spell.
“Miri is expected to experience the drought season until September so the public are advised to stay alert on any forest fire including open burning,” he said.
Lee told reporters this when visiting the watchtower in Tudan here to look at the haze situation in Permyjaya, Tudan in Kuala Baram, which is the worst hit area.
He was accompanied by Miri Department of Environment (DOE) officer S Sivanathiran, Miri Bomba controller Unjar Lum as well as officers from Miri Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID).
Lee disclosed that the construction of a small canal, about two kilometres long to prevent the spreading of fire from the watchtower to Institut Latihan Perindustrian (ILP) in Kuala Baram near here will continue to be constructed with the help of six excavators, where four were sponsored by corporate companies namely Petronas, Shell, Samling and Daiken.
“The other two excavators were funded by DOE. We are really thankful to the corporate sectors involved for their efforts in helping us put out forest fires and the haze,” he said.
Lee said until yesterday, only two areas were still burning. One was Vista Perdana while the other was Permyjaya, which included the ILP area.
“To stop the fire from continuously burning, we have fully utilised the six tube wells in the area by pumping water into them to flood the burning area,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, Unjar Lum said Bomba estimated areas affected by the forest fire throughout Miri the past two weeks to be about 100 hectares and the biggest area is ILP, Kuala Baram.
“At the moment, we are focusing more on Permyjaya and Kuala Baram where we stationed 15 Bomba personnel on a shift basis and the operation goes on for 24 hours.
“Another 30 Bomba personnel are available on standby and will be mobilised upon receiving reports of fire,” he stated.