The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has issued an urgent alert as thousands of forest and plantation fires have been detected across parts of Thailand. According to a Nation Thailand report, Atthapol Charoenchansa, the department’s acting director-general issued a 24/7 alert yesterday.
Firefighters have been ordered to check their equipment is in good working condition as they were placed on standby in areas of the north, north-east, west, and central Thailand.
Related agencies in the affected areas are also setting up war rooms at various national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. The Protected Areas Regional Office has also been tasked with identifying which body is responsible for fighting fires that spread across borders.
On Tuesday, the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency identified a total of 3,768 fire hotspots across the kingdom, the highest since January 1.
Nation Thailand reports that thousands of hotspots were visible on the Suomi satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. According to the report, 1,937 fires were in protected forests, 1,043 in national forests, and 280 fire were in agricultural areas.
The western province of Kanchanaburi has the highest number of fires, at 577, followed by Tak with 495, Uttaradit with 237, 212 in Nan, and 190 in Phrae. The satellite has also picked up 3,370 fire hotspots in Laos, 2,809 in Myanmar, 2,758 in Cambodia, and 732 in Vietnam.
The resulting haze has created dangerously high levels of PM2.5 air pollution in many parts of the country.
Here is a LIVE map of all the fires around Thailand and neighbouring countries as of 4pm Thai time on March 3…
SOURCE: Nation Thailand
