SEREMBAN: The Fire and Rescue Department is still waiting for the go-ahead from Indonesia to dispatch its firemen to aid in combating forest fires in the republic.
Its director general Datuk Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim said at present, Indonesia has only requested for helicopters to conduct ‘water bombing’ runs at the hotspots.
“We are ready to send 1,500 of our firemen to help put out the fires as the method being used now is ineffective to deal with peat fire.
“However, we are waiting for the nod from our Indonesian counterparts,” he said after officiating Pusat Kualiti Alam’s Emergency Response Command Centre at Bandar Seri Sendayan, here, today.
Yesterday, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) entered its second leg of operation to combat raging forest fires in Indonesia.
Its Bombardier CL415 aircraft pilots carried out 13 water bombing runs, dumping a total of 78,000 litres of water onto the blaze in Palembang.
The operation, which took four hours and 40 minutes, was carried out in an area spanning 20sq km, located 80 nautical miles southeast of Palembang.