Canada Hill fire causes haze in Miri City

Canada Hill fire causes haze in Miri City

10 July 2011

published by www.thestar.com.my


Malaysia — Some unscrupulous people have tried to set fire to the slopes of Canada Hill here, presumably to clear the area for farming.

A portion of the hill was still enveloped in smoke at 3pm yesterday, with several parts already charred by the fire which may have started the night before.

Every year, during the hot and dry season, squatters living in the area will set fire to the entire hill slope to clear the land. They had planted maize and other vegetables there.

The fires and ashes from the wildfires on Canada Hill often resulted in choking smoke that blows into the city and beyond, resulting in serious air pollution and haze.

Yesterday and the day before, residents in various residential estates could smell heavy smog during the wee hours of the morning.

A check with the city centre fire station showed that there were no official reports of who had carried out the burning.

“The fires must have started during the night. We did not find anyone carrying out any burning this morning,” said a fireman.

In the meantime, satellite images from the NOAA-18 satellite showed that there were some 43 hotspots throughout Borneo on Friday.

About a dozen are inside Sarawak, with all of them in the southern half of the state.


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