Peat swamp forest fire at Lumut Bypass

A forest fire occurred since last Tuesday at the forest area at Lumut Bypass, Belait District the firefighter still carried the control and extinguishing operation at the area since the fire affect the peat swamp forest. It occurred due to the hot and dry season which occurs at the country nowadays.

During a visit to the forest fire site, firefighters from Sungai Liang fire station still busy extinguishing the fire which already spread deep in the forest area further from the main road. They also faced difficulties due to the absence of access road fore fire engines to reach the fire site and they had to walk along with their equipment into the forest. Although heavy rainfall occurred at Belait District last Wednesday it still not helpful to extinguish the fire as it occurred in the ground layer of the forest.

A firefighter when interviewed at the operation site said “The fire occurred at the roadside of the Lumut Bypass last Tuesday however the strong wind caused it to spread and affect the peat swamp forest in the forest. We had to use the flooding and extracting technique at the affected site as the fire are not occur at the upper layer of the forest but it already spread deep into the inner layer of the forest. We hoped that we can extinguish the fire by few days time.”