New Straits Times 25 Jun 12;
MIRI: An army of firefighters, battling a week-old underground peat fire raging in Kuala Baram near the the Sarawak-Brunei border, now have a real fight on their hands.
The fire has spread further to inaccessible parts of the forest.
The 100 firefighters, comprising regular firemen and civil defence personnel as well as personnel from a host of other government agencies, now fear the fire could get out of control as their task to extinguish it had been made more difficult.
Their biggest fear is that a gust of wind could further fan the flames in the tinder box forest.
State Department of Environment (DOE) director Ismail Ithnin said that even if they brought the fire under control, a gust of wind could cause it to flare up again.
The thick smoke and ash of the fire had enveloped a large part of the area in Baram, sending the air quality plummeting to the "unhealthy" level in the DOE's Air Pollutant Index (API).
At noon yesterday, the API reading of the areas surrounding the Miri Industrial Training Institute stood at an unhealthy 144.
The reading for Miri, 27km away, was 66 (moderate quality) as of noon.
Apart from the institute, the nearby Kompleks Kebajikan Hamidah, an orphanage which houses about 100 children and Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (SJKC) Chung Hua Tudan, were also among the hardest hit by the smoke and ash.
Residents of areas close by have also complained of breathing difficulty and particles raining down on them.
So far, none of the residents of the orphanage have been moved out, nor has the school been ordered to shut down. To avert potential health problems, the DOE had distributed 850 face masks to the orphanage and school.
Firefighters are now working round the clock to bring the fire under control and Ismail said the plan was to flood more of the peat land and deprive oxygen to the fire burning under ground.
He said so far, 18 areas of the forest had been flooded.
"We plan to flood two more areas."
Ismail said firefighters plan to create two more water wells, bringing to eight the number of wells from which they could draw water, to flood the remaining burning peat land.
Better air quality, except in Miri
New Straits Times 25 Jun 12;
KUALA LUMPUR: Air quality in Klang Valley and other parts of the country improved yesterday with the exception of Miri in Sarawak.
Department of Environment's air quality monitoring stations nationwide recorded 16 areas with "good" air quality at 11am, compared with nine on Thursday, 33 areas with "moderate" and only one with an "unhealthy level".
The Air Pollutant Index (API) in Klang Valley improved from readings of above 100 registered a week earlier to below 60 in most areas yesterday.
The department classifies API readings of between 0 and 50 as "good", 51-100 as "moderate", 101-200 as "unhealthy", 201-300 as "very unhealthy" and more than 300 as "hazardous".
Meanwhile, the dry weather and hot spell is expected to continue with the Malaysian Meteorological Department forecast for the next three days showing no rain throughout Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malacca, Pahang and Johor, with only isolated showers in the afternoon.
Penang's weather outlook is cloudy with isolated rain over the coastal areas. Perak is also predicted to be cloudy in the morning with no rain in the day.
Kedah forecast shows isolated rain over coastal areas in the morning, while Terengganu is expected to have isolated afternoon thunderstorms.
On the other hand, isolated rain and thunderstorms were forecast over Sarawak.
