By Nancy Nais
SRI AMAN, Sept 21: Efforts to put out forest and peat fires at Kampung STC by the Bombardier CL-415 aircraft were unsuccessful today as fishing nets and other objects in river had prevented the aircraft from scooping water for the water bombing operation.
Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), in a statement today, informed that Sungai Batang Lupar was identified as a suitable location to refill water but they later found many fishing nets and dubious objects inside.
The agency added that local villagers living along the river had refused to cooperate and removed the fishing nets and materials, prompting the aircraft, which was piloted by Salihin Hamzah to abort the operation as it was deemed dangerous for both the plane and crews.
Another location identified by the Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) was deemed unsuitable because the length of the river was too short for the aircraft to scoop water.
The three-hours operation began at 1.15pm, with visibility of less than one kilometre.
MMEA will carry out another operation tomorrow at 8am, this time focusing on Sungai Linga as the nearest scoopable water source.
The ongoing forest fire at Kampung STC involved some 133 acres of land, not including Kelauh (267 acres), Kejatau (200 acres) and Jalan Tisak (66 acres).— DayakDaily
