THIS year’s wildfires in Belait were worse than 2015, sweeping over 800 hectares of forests and peatland, said the district head of Fire and Rescue Operations B Branch.

Muhd Shareeni Hj Mohd Yussof said the impact of this year’s Belait wildfires were larger based on the size of affected area and firefighters took a longer period to extinguish the blaze.

In an interview last weekend, he said firefighters started putting out the forest fires from January to April this year, compared with last year’s February to April.

He said the district’s forest fires have been extinguished, with rainy weather a contributing factor in putting out the flames.

The initial downpour did not help much in firefighting operations, but continual rainfall had gradually resulted in the dousing of fires, he added.

The forest fires had ravaged some of the areas along Seria Bypass, Sungai Bera, Sungai Teraban and Anduki, with Muhd Shahreeni estimated that 700 to 850 hectares of land were affected in Belait.

During that period, he said firefighters had put out any existing remnants of the forest fire, leading to the end of the wildfires sometime in April.

“What follows after that was a period of constant monitoring and patrolling, should there be any sparks of fire in the affected areas, firefighters on duty are to take immediate action.

“Towards the end of last month, seeing that the fire has been extinguished, I then made a declaration for the District Emergency Operation Centre to be deactivated, which was also approved by the Belait District Office,” he added.

The district head said three firefighters were brought to Suri Seri Begawan Hospital from January to February following health complications from the blaze.

One firefighter who was bitten by a scorpion, another inhaled too much smoke and a third whose eye was damaged from floating embers. All three have made a full recovery.

In a previous report, Chief Executive Officer of Brunei’s Heart of Borneo (HOB) Centre Mahmud Hj Yussof and Seria’s acting station commander at the time Muhd Ali Hassan both blamed arson as the reason behind the forest fires.

It was reported that the forests were set on fire to clear the land for farming, where the sight of commercial crops planted over the burnt area visible off Seria’s bypass.

With the end of forest fire in Belait, the Fire and Rescue Operations B branch has now resumed its normal operating hours.

Muhd Shahreeni said firefighters will remain vigilant in monitoring any sparks of fire, and to conduct patrols so that they are always prepared against any fire incidents in Belait.

The Brunei Times