The Crime Suppression Division (CSD) has launched an investigation into the burning of peat swamps in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Chalerm Prakiat district with a land acquisition motive suspected to be behind the blazes.
ACADEMICS PUT down the authorities’ failure to control this year’s smog crisis in the North to an inappropriate “command-and-control approach”, adding that this problem will persist if the strategy is not revised.
The northern province of Mae Hong Son continued to see forest fires at the weekend, with one of them almost reaching a revered Guan Yin shrine in Muang district Sunday night, officials said.
A fire broke out in the forest behind the shrine on the Mae Hong Son bypass in Ban Mai Ngae village of Tambon Pang Moo at 7 pm, surprising and scaring villagers and motorists.
MAE HONG SON (The Nation) – Mae Hong Son governor Sirirat Chamupakarn has instructed village wildfire-watch teams to remain vigilant even though the province’s 61-day ban on outdoor fires ended on Tuesday and the level of fine dust particles in the air was below the safe limit for the first time in two months.
The Pollution Control Department (PCD) at 9 am yesterday put the 24-hour average of PM2.5 – airborne particulates 2.5 microns or less in diameter – at between 24 and 114 micrograms per cubic meter of air in nine northern provinces.
With forest fires contributing to the high levels of PM2.5 pollution – airborne particulates 2.5 microns or less in diameter
CHIANG RAI – Although it was the last day of the ban on the outdoor burning ban in nine northern provinces on Tuesday, multiple forest fires continued to be a problem.
A satellite report cited 107 hotspots in the region on Monday with 35 locales in Chiang Rai and 15 sites in Chiang Mai.
Bangkok – The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation has declared a total of 13 districts of five provinces, namely Roi Et, Sri Saket, Nakhon Ratchasima, Trat, and Chonburi, as drought-hit areas.
More than 100 forest fires are raging in Mae Hong Son province, half of which reportedly stemmed from people’s attempts to clear farmlands to prepare the soil for the early sowing of seeds before the rainy season.
A satellite image reported that as of 1.47am on Sunday, Mae Hong Son had 152 hotspots (49 in Pai, 36 in Sop Moei, 36 in Khun Yuam, 18 in Mae Sariang, 12 in Pang Mapha, and one in Mae La Noi).
Illegal outdoor fires continue to occur in Mae Hong Son province despite the ban and the raging smog crisis.
In recent months, Mae Hong Son has been struggling with haze most of the time. Exposure to serious air pollution has become a threat to the health of locals.
THE HUGE FIRE, which this week turned Doi Jorakhe into an inferno and destroyed more than 1,000 rai (160 hectares) of forestland, has been contained with most hot spots put out, deputy governor Narong Rojjanasothorn said yesterday.
However, the battles against wildfires will continue elsewhere in Chiang Rai, which still suffers from 380 hotspots, Narong said after meeting with the Doi Jorakhe special coordination center for fighting forest fires, located at Wat Pateung in Mae Chan district.