Smoke in the air due to bush fires

Straits Times 18 Feb 10;

A bush fire broke out on Tuesday in this area - about the size of a football field - behind a construction site in Tampines. Drier conditions have led to hot spots around the island, and the SCDF says it has responded to 71 such fires so far this month.

THE National Environment Agency (NEA) says that the smell of burning and smoky air over some areas last week was due to bush fires, not haze.

Drier conditions last week resulted in hot spots in Singapore, the agency said. But as the fires were not large, the smoke from the fires did not affect PSI air-pollutant readings.

The PSI readings for this month have been in the 'good' range of 1 to 50 each day, and under 35 for all but two days.

Singapore usually goes through the dry phase of the north-east monsoon from February to late March, the agency added.

For the first 16 days of this month, the island received just 4.6mm of rainfall, compared to February's monthly mean rainfall of 161.5mm.

The lowest recorded rainfall for a February was a scant 8.4mm, recorded in 1968 and again in 2005.

The NEA added that hot spot activity had been subdued in Sumatra and Borneo last week, and that prevailing winds from the north-east would have blown any haze away from Singapore.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) confirmed that it had responded to 71 bush fires so far this month, and urged the public to refrain from tossing cigarette butts or matches onto grassy areas and operating machinery that gives out sparks in dry vegetation areas.

It added that home owners with lawns should keep the grass trimmed and dispose of dead leaves properly.

Incense papers should be burnt only in the bins provided by town councils and completely extinguished after prayer sessions.

The SCDF said its crews are patrolling hot spots such as Fort Road, Tanah Merah Coast Road, Sengkang and Punggol to put out incipient vegetation fires before they escalate.

While some residents said they had not noticed a burning odour in the air, others were more concerned.

Madam Lorraine Teo, a 34-year-old bank worker, said the smell of burning is in the air even at her home in Paya Lebar. 'We've been smelling it for the past couple of weeks,' she said.

Family physician Dana Elliott Srither said he had been seeing some cases of asthma and common cold, but put them down to the past weekend's holiday break.

'I don't think it's specifically because of haze,' he said.

GRACE CHUA

71 bush fires in two weeks
Today Online 18 Feb 10;

SINGAPORE - The dry spell saw 71 cases of grass, lalang and vegetation fires between Feb 1 and Feb 16, and 36 cases last month.

These figures are low compared to last year's peak of 182 bush fires in January and 159 fires in February, said the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) which chairs the Wildfire Task Force Committee.

It has been working with related agencies to adopt preventive measures such as increasing the frequencies in trimming vegetation, keeping the land moist and creating fire break buffers. SCDF crews are also patrolling fire hotspots like Fort Road, Tanah Merah Coastal Road, Sengkang and Punggol.

The SCDF urged the public to not throw cigarette butts and matchsticks onto grass patches or rubbish dumps, and not dispose of rubbish at grassy areas. Home owners should keep their grass trimmed and watered, while incense paper should be burned in incense burners placed on flat open ground.