THE Disaster Management Committee has been ordered to pinpoint the exact cause of the forest and peat soil fires in Sri Aman, Sarawak, that have contributed to the worsening air quality over the past week.

Even though the air pollution index level in Sri Aman plunged dramatically from a nationwide high of 414 (hazardous) at 1pm yesterday to 107 (unhealthy) by 5pm today, Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas, who chairs the committee, said it should not be caught out again in the next dry spell.

Uggah, who today inspected the site of the fires and met the men battling to put them out round-the-clock over the last five days, said he wanted a definitive report on the cause of the fires.

He added that the chairman of the divisional-level committee, Sri Aman resident Indit Bangai, should work with experts on its report.

“We have suspicions on the cause but we want it confirmed so that appropriate action can be taken (to prevent a repeat),” Uggah said.

Uggah added that lessons learnt in tackling the perennial forest fires in Kuala Baram, Miri, could also be implemented in Sri Aman, 193km from Kuching.

State Fire and Rescue Department chief Khiruddin Drahman had said last Thursday that arson was the most probable cause of the fires.

The forest and peat soil fires in Sri Aman had been the focus of intense firefighting efforts over the past week. 

With the smoke generated from those fires coupled with the transboundary smog from fires in Indonesia, Sri Aman became the only area in the country to record API levels above 300.

Meanwhile, operations commander Tiong Ling Hii said this morning that an hour of heavy rain last night, the result of cloud seeding earlier in the day, had helped extinguish surface fires.

He added the peat soil fires below ground were still raging in scattered spots across a 16ha-wide area.

Firefighting efforts continued on the ground today, with the Fire and Rescue Department’s Russian-built MI-171 helicopter joining in about noon.

Tiong said that by 2pm, the helicopter had made 12 water-bombing sorties.

A Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Bombardier aircraft is also expected to join the aerial assault later this afternoon.

However, the firefighters, joined by armed forces and Civil Defence Department personnel, may see the break they need, as the Meteorological Department today said the inter-monsoon period was set to start on Tuesday and continue until early November.

“The start of this inter-monsoon phase indicates the end of the southwest monsoon that started on May 6,” it said in a statement.

It added during this period, the region would experience wind in “multiple directions”, with weak wind speed ideal for the formation of rain clouds.

It said the period would also see thunderstorms and short bursts of heavy rain, especially in the early evenings, in most areas across the country. – September 21, 2019.