NATION | 12 Apr 2019
MIRI: Forest fires have flared up again in the Similajau National Park in northern Sarawak.
The Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) is sending in its volunteer firefighters to help those from Sarawak Bomba who are already there.
SFC chief executive officer Zolkipli Mohamad Aton said on Friday (April 12) that fires had been detected inside the park again.
“We thought the forest fires had been extinguished for good through the hard work of fire-fighters from the Sarawak Bomba who had been battling the fires in the national park since March 21.
“However, the fires reignited yesterday due to the embers that were still burning in the ground.
“The dry and windy situation is fanning the fires,” he said.
Zolkipli on Thursday afternoon visited the national park to personally check the ground situation.
He said the SFC had deployed 26 volunteer fire-fighters to assist the 40 Bomba fire-fighters already inside to try to douse the flames.
Sarawak Bomba had two weeks ago carried out aerial water-bombings to douse the flames.
It deployed its Bomba Air Wing Unit from its Miri base to carry out several dozens of water-bombing sorties to stop the fires from spreading.
Similajau National Park is located at the Bintulu-Miri districts boundary some 150kms south of Miri.
Initial probe showed there was open-burning at the fringes of the park and the fires then spread into the national park.