THOUSANDS OF HOTSPOTS DETECTED
Sarawak Deputy Premier Douglas Uggah Embas said about 13,000 hotspots were detected in neighbouring Indonesia last month.
In Sarawak, some 300 hotspots have been extinguished, he told CNA.
But with more than 1.7 million hectares of peatland across the state, authorities remain on high alert.
“Sarawak is almost as big as West Malaysia, and then almost half of Sarawak is in the interior, even in the peat area, where there are no proper roads,” said Uggah, who chairs the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee.
“That’s why it takes time for us to tackle the fire. The tricky part is whether we have enough water to extinguish the fire. Sometimes it’s very far from the river, and there is no road.”
The committee’s operations centre has been running since August to coordinate the response.
