After eight days, Sri Aman forest fire fully extinguished

KUCHING: Forest and peatland fires, covering 53 hectares of land in Kampung STC, Sri Aman, were successfully extinguished at 10.30pm on Monday.

The blaze, which had been raging for eight days, had contributed to the severe haze smothering Sri Aman over the past week.

According to Sarawak Fire and Rescue assistant operations director Tiong Ling Hii, firefighters had tackled the massive fire by dividing it into three sectors.

"A total of 21 men (doused the fire sector by sector). The (fire in the) last sector (sector C) was put out last night.

“But we will continue to monitor the situation on the ground closely," he added.

Firemen were assisted in their efforts by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), which conducted a two-day water bombing operation on Sunday and Monday using Bombardier CL-415 aircraft.

Sri Aman’s air quality was among the worst in the country throughout the haze crisis, and breached the 400 level of the Air Pollutant Index (API) last week.