Fire Officials Say Forest Fires Mostly Extinguished
10/2/97
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Headline: Fire Officials Say Forest Fires Mostly Extinguished
Source: Reuters
Date: 10/2/97
Copyright: Reuters Limited 1997
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter) - Overnight rain helped extinguish most of the peat
fires in Malaysia's eastern Pahang state that had been smouldering for the
past several days, a fire official said on Friday.
"It's down to embers," Azman Mohamed, deputy head of fire operations in
Pahang's state capital of Kuantan, told Reuters by telephone. But he said
about 20 fire-fighters were standing by in case the flames flared up again.
The fires had been focused on three rural sites totalling about 364
hectares (900 acres) near the town of Pekan, about 30 km south of Kuantan.
The blazes were discovered on Tuesday, and about 200 fire-fighters and
other support officials had been mobilised to fight it.
The cause of the fires is unknown.
A lack of rain and dwindling water supply from a nearby stream had hampered
the fire-fighters' efforts. Residents of the area said it had not rained
for weeks.
Azman said there was a little smoke from the mostly extinguished fires on
Friday, and that skies were clear in the area, with smog from Indonesian
fires gone.
Smog over Malaysia in general has decreased dramatically this week after
heavy rains and favourable winds shifted the smoky pollution.
Readings nationwide have been under 100 on the Malaysian Air Pollutant
Index (API), indicating "good" to "moderate" levels of pollution.
More than 1,000 Malaysian fire-fighters are in Indonesia to help battle
huge fires there.