By Nancy Nais
SRI AMAN, Sept 23: The integrated water bombing and around-the-clock firefighting operations against forest and peat fires at Kampung STC have resulted in at least a 95 per cent success rate.
Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) Assistant Director of Operations Tiong Ling Hii said the department deployed its MI-171 helicopter to conduct water bombing, to reduce and prevent the fire from spreading, while at the same time, flood the affected areas.
“With the help of our helicopter and a Bombardier CL-415 aircraft owned by Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in yesterday’s operations, the fires have been reduced but it is not over yet,” he said.
Firefighters on the ground remained steadfast as they continued their 24-hour firefighting operations at Kampung STC, Jalan Kejatau-Lingga and Jalan Tisak in Betong for the eighth straight day.
Yesterday, the Bomba air unit led by Capt Ahmad Fissol Ismail and his 11 crew members successfully dropped 25,200 litres of water in 14 sorties over one of three sectors in Kampung STC.
Tiong said today’s operations will continue with a ground attack and an integrated operation to enable full and efficient fire eradication without wasting of resources.
“We’ve deployed more FRT fire engines to Sri Aman to speed up the process of (creating) fire-break and flooding. So far the results yesterday showed that the total area affected at STC is 608 acres. Over at Sector A, it involves 191 acres (17 acres still burning), Sector B involves 302 acres (five acres still burning) and Sector C involves 115 acres (0.5 acres still burning).
“The ground operation remains at 24-hours. My firefighters are working day and night but they are also at risk when they fight fire in the dark,” he said, expressing hope that members of the public will understand that the department has not paused efforts since day one.
Due to the non-availability of water sources near STC, firefighters had to use two Prime Mover machines to transport water from Batang Lupar.
Meanwhile, in sector A, the team found no new fire or smoke spots and are continuing to flood the areas that are still producing smoke.
In sector B, a monitoring team found several smoke spots and will continue to do total flooding. The team is facing difficulties as there is no access into the jungle.
Over at sector C, firefghters could finally move in with their hoses after access was made with the help of several excavators. They were also able to create fire breaks to block the fire from spreading. — DayakDaily
