Blazing again
Lediati Tan, The New Paper 19 Feb 09;
THE forested area along Bukit Batok West Avenue 3 has once again been affected by bush fires.
The area was hit by a bush fire on Monday afternoon at about 4.30pm.
At about 1pm yesterday, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) received a call alerting them to yet another bush fire in the same forested area.
Said Mr Lui Hoong Chen, 58, a technical officer who lives near the forested area: 'It was much bigger and more serious than Monday. Then, it was only a small patch.'
The forested area measures about 400m by 70m. An SCDF spokesman told The New Paper that there were four different sections that were on fire within the area.
When SCDF arrived at the scene, they found two pockets of fire, each covering an area the size of one basketball court.
The work was made trickier by the dense vegetation and the undulating terrain, which consists of an upward slopping area measuring 50 metres in height at its peak.
Due to difficulties in making their way up the slopes, the firemen took 45 minutes to trek to and locate the two hot spots.
About an hour into their work, strong winds blew embers onto another two locations in the area and caused the two spots to catch fire as well.
Firemen took another 45 minutes to trek to and locate the two new fire locations.
The fire there was spread over an area the size of two basketball courts.
Four fire engines, three Red Rhinos, five support vehicles and 70 personnel were dispatched to fight the fire.
SCDF could not confirm whether the fire was the biggest bush fire this year.
The fire was brought under control within 21/2 hours after SCDF's arrival at the scene.
The New Paper on Sunday reported a record number of bush fires in Singapore. A total of 182 bush fires were recorded last month - the highest number for the month of January in the past decade.
For this month, SCDF has already handled 106 cases of bush fires as of last Friday.
They bring the total so far this year to 288, compared to the 426 cases over the whole of last year.
Meanwhile, the weatherman has said that the haze, caused by the bush fires here, may stay till the end of the week.
The record number of fires has been fuelled by the soaring temperatures and dry weather. Also, weak winds can't blow the smoke particles away.
On Sunday, temperatures reached a scorching 35 deg C, the highest recorded for this month.
Singapore Bushfires Hit Nearly Decade High In January
Nopporn Wong-Anan, PlanetArk 19 Feb 09;
SINGAPORE - Island-state Singapore faced the largest number of bushfires in nearly a decade in January, thanks to an unusually long dry spell, the government's anti-fire agency said Wednesday. The tropical nation saw 182 vegetation fires in January, mostly due to the dry spell, which the Singapore Civil Defense Force said was "unprecedented."
"The Jan figures of 182 bush fires responded is the most number of incidents attended to by the force in almost a decade," Lieutenant Colonel N. Subhas said in an email reply to Reuters.
There were already 110 fires in the first 16 days of February, Subhas said.
The agency urged the public to avoid dumping of rubbish and materials on vacant lands to prevent fires.
Singapore's pollutants standards index reached its year high Sunday and the weather agency blamed it on the record number of bush fires, dry weather and weak winds that failed to blow the smoke particles away, the Straits Times newspaper said.
Singapore's climate is divided into two main seasons -- the December-March northeast monsoon and the June-September southwest monsoon, in which February is supposed to be the driest month.
(Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Sanjeev Miglani)
