531 hotspots in Sumatra, 40ha burning in Dengkil

More haze, more threat to our health ..... Be prepared, venture less outside especially to those with breathing problems. Use your treadmill instead of the evening/morning jog. It gets worse especially towards the night.

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531 hotspots in Sumatra, 40ha burning in Dengkil
By V.P. Sujata and Royce Cheah, The Star, 3rd August 2008

It's that time of the year again. It's the dry spell, the haze is coming back and the number of hotspots in Sumatra has jumped from 351 to 531 within 24 hours.

To make things worse, a 40ha peat forest in Dengkil has been burning for the last two days. And the weather is expected to stay dry for the next three days.

The Malaysia Meteorological Department said satellite images showed 531 hotspots over Sumatra as at 2.30pm yesterday.

According to the Department of Environment, the intensity of the haze would depend on the wind strength.

For now, Port Klang is the only area with an unhealthy API reading of 104 (a reading of 101 to 200 is considered unhealthy). Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur recorded moderate readings of 57 and 61 respectively.

Haze has been a perennial problem for Malaysia because of slash-and-burn activities practised by farmers in Indonesia.

The fire in Putrajaya could make things worse this year. Over 40ha of agriculture land at the 24th kilometre of the Elite Highway near the KL International Airport has been on fire for the last two days.

Sepang Kuala Langat fire chief Supt Sharikan Bustaman said the fire was burning beneath and above ground and the dry season had made matters worse.

About 70 firemen from nearby stations are fighting to put out the fire at the area, which is part of the Kuala Langat Forest Reserve.

In April, a fire spread over a 12ha site and it took firemen three days to put it out.

Supt Sharikan hoped for rain that would put the fire out completely.

He said farmers clearing agriculture waste could have started the fire that was reported on Friday.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd senior operations general manager Datuk Azmi Murad said the fire had not affected airport operations and visibility was fine, for now.