Firefighters working to extinguish the forest and peat soil fire currently raging in Kuala Baram.
MIRI: Strong winds and a dry spell for the past week have hindered efforts by firefighters and volunteers here as they work to douse the ongoing forest and peat soil fires raging across Kuala Baram today.
As of 3pm, Bomba had managed to put out fires on only 12 acres of land – less than half of the areas affected by the fires.
Zone 6 Fire and Rescue station chief, Supt Law Poh Kiong said 19 Bomba personnel including six air unit crews and 13 volunteers from Naim Group of Companies had been fighting the blaze using both direct attack methods and water bombing since 10am today.
“The forest and peat soil fire spreads very fast due to the strong wind and dry weather,” said Law in a statement.
Efforts to extinguish the flames are currently taking place at four lots in Kuala Baram namely Lot 3709, Lot 4041, Lot 4042 and Lot 3709 near Desa Indah 3.
In Lot 3709, there is still an area of 30 acres showing signs of smoke and fire, while four acres are on fire.
As for Lot 4041, his men are still fighting the flames affecting over 34 acres of peat soil land.
He added that firefighters were struggling to get to Lot 4042 as it is located away from the access road.
Meanwhile, the air unit which was deployed to carry out water bombing today had managed to put out fires on five acres of land thus far.
At 3.30pm, Law said Bomba had detected another hot spot in Kuala Baram which was near Hamidah Yakub Welfare Complex, bringing the total to four hotspots detected thus far.