Strong Winds, Scorching Peat Soil Make It Tough For Firefighters To Control Mukah Blaze

By Ibrahim Mahsen

SIBU, July 30 (Bernama) -- Firefighters have had to deal with strong winds, scorching peat soil and a lack of water resources in their efforts to control the bushfire behind the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Mukah Campus, which has been raging since Thursday (July  24).

Mukah Fire and Rescue Station head Nicholas Belulin said the embers had seeped into the peat soil, making extinguishing efforts difficult and requiring thorough control to prevent the fire from spreading to the nearby oil palm plantation.

One of the drastic actions taken was the construction of a 100-metre (m) to 200m-long fire break yesterday using excavators belonging to a nearby plantation company and contractors mobilised at the instruction of the Mukah Division Resident Office.

"The blaze is still not fully under control. We hope that the fire break would act as a barrier to prevent the blaze from spreading,” he said when contacted by Bernama today.

He added that preliminary investigations found that the blaze is believed to have started from open burning activities by farmers clearing their farms by burning branches and plant waste, and then failing to control it due to the hot weather and excessively dry soil.

"We expect to bring the blaze under control soon if there is no strong wind and our firefighting strategy is carried out properly. We are also hoping for rain as that will help to extinguish the blaze naturally,” he added.

Efforts to put out the fire on the two-hectare area have proven to be more challenging due to the lack of water resources, forcing the firefighters to dig trenches for additional water, but the silt from the trenches caused the water pumps to become clogged.

Meanwhile, firefighters have managed to control the blaze at the 80.15-hectare Long An Unga pineapple plantation at Jalan Miri-Marudi in northern Sarawak from spreading.

"The firefighting operation was focused on the border areas between the forest, oil palm and pineapple plantations. Although the dry weather conditions and limited water resources made firefighting difficult, there has been no new fire outbreak,” the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department's Operations Centre (PGO) said in a report.

According to the report, the operation to extinguish the embers in the peat soil resumed this morning after it was called off at 5 pm yesterday, after using up the water from a nearby pond.

-- BERNAMA