KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Fire and Rescue Department extinguished open burning fires covering 3,904.45 hectares between Jan 1 and yesterday, announced its director, Abdul Razak Muda.
He highlighted that efforts are underway to extinguish fires in a remaining area of 1.49 hectares in Tuaran, adding that a total of 1,435 fires were reported during the period.
The highest number of open burning occurred in forest areas, covering 2,180.85 hectares with 578 cases, followed by agricultural land and vegetable farms (911.06 hectares/96 cases), shrubs and grassland (714.48 hectares/746 cases), and peatland (99.3 hectares/43 cases), he said.
“Out of the 27 districts in Sabah, only three districts, namely, Telupid, Tongod, and Kalabakan have not experienced any open burning incidents so far,“ he said in a statement today.
He noted that Kota Belud recorded the largest area of open burning at 725.8 hectares, followed by Kuala Penyu with 688.73 hectares and Tuaran with 616.43 hectares.
“The fires in Tuaran have yet to be completely extinguished, whereas those in Kota Belud and Kuala Penyu have been successfully put out,“ he added.
He further stated that within the past 24 hours, 43 reports of fires involving 105.05 hectares of land have been received. -Bernama
