By Amin Ridzuan Ishak
SHAH ALAM, April 22 — Nearly 60 per cent of forest fire has been put out at Compartment 21 of the Kuala Langat Selatan Forest Reserve, says the Selangor Fire and Rescue Department.
Its director Norazam Khamis said the heavy downpour and eight waterbombing operations held yesterday had doused most of the fire engulfing some 65 hectares of the area.
“We have done some checks this morning to monitor the weather conditions before we can continue with the water bombing operations.
“Hopefully we get to put out more fire to prevent the flames from spreading into a wider area,” he told SelangorKini when contacted today.
Authorities believed that the hot and dry spell was the contributing factor behind the fire, which started on Saturday. However, the possibility of land encroachment activities to have triggered the incident has not been ruled out.
Firefighters are facing difficulties to extinguish the flames due to the weather condition as well as the lack of access route and water source at the burning forest area.