Surge Of Bush Fires In Malaysia Due To Dry Spell

Some 40ha of forest in four locations in Gerik, about 200km from here, are on fire. The Fire and Rescue Department will send in aircraft to carry out a water bombing exercise tomorrow, 1 March 2014.

Open burning detected in four separate locations in Gerik, about 130 km from here, since yesterday is believed to have been caused by deliberate burning activities.

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North Zone Fire and Rescue Department head, Zainuddin Abdul Rahim said the locations were in the Gunung Tujuh area in Kuala Kendrong - an area of eight hectares, Kampung Air Bah in Kenering (12 hectares), KM17 of the East-West Highway (12 hectares) and Pulau Banding (eight hectares).

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Perak Fire and Rescue Department director Yahaya Madis, who described the fires as the most serious in Grik so far, said the fires at the forest reserve and nearby Gunung Tujuh were detected on Tuesday.

The drought over the past few weeks triggered fires in three places at the peak of Penang Hill late yesterday, 25 February 2014.

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Penang Fire and Rescue Department director Azmi Tamat said the department was alerted to the fires by members of the public at 6pm.
"A team of 20 firemen from the Jalan Perak and Bagan Jermal stations were sent to two of the locations," he said when contacted by Bernama on Wednesday.

Azmi said the fire-fighters took more than 12 hours to extinguish the flames at the two locations as they were hampered by the lack of water. "We had to use backpack sprays," he said, adding that they were in the midst of putting out one more fire.

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Negeri Sembilan declared a state of crisis yesterday while water reserves in the Klang Valley continued to deplete, affecting thousands of consumers.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said, "We have not had any rain here over the past two months and this has caused water levels at our seven dams to reach critical levels."

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He said the authorities used to draw up to 13 million litres of raw water from Sg Batang Benar and another 45 million litres from Sg Ulu Muar, to supply consumers in Seremban alone.

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Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor, in a statement yesterday, said more than 110,000 homes in Selangor, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur have suffered water disruptions as the Cheras Batu 11 and Bukit Tampoi water treatment plants remain closed because of high ammonia content in Sungai Langat due to the lack of rain.

Malaysia is one week away from the danger of fire reaching “critical” levels, according to the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department director Datuk Wan Nor Ibrahim.

Fire and Rescue Department director-general Datuk Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim said the country recorded an average of 300 forest fires daily compared to 100 on normal days.

According to Wan Mohd Nor, another contributing factor to forest fires was open burning by irresponsible people. “An open burning can spread like wildfire if it is allowed to continue.

The majority of the calls came from Selangor, Johor, Perak and Terengganu, where more than 70 reports of fire were recorded from each of the states.

“In the current dry weather, small fires, whether to burn rubbish or other items, can easily become larger and lead to forest fires."

“More than 13,000 department personnel are on stand-by in case the situation worsens."

National Water Services Com­mission (SPAN) chairman Datuk Ismail Kassim said although the water level in many dams remains above 50%, the Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister on Sunday had issued an alert for all state water authorities to store extra water to prevent the possibility of a water crisis.

“States like Perlis and Kedah as well as some east coast states should be prepared because they are expected to experience low rainfall this coming month."