KUANTAN: The air quality in Rompin which breached the "very unhealthy" level yesterday has begun to show signs of improvement since this morning.
According to the Department of Environment's Air Pollutant Index (API), the air quality level reached 279 at 3am today due to the hazy conditions in the district.
It had crossed the unhealthy level since 11am yesterday gradually increasing from 254 to 279 before dropping to 196 at 7am today.
State Fire and Rescue Department director Nor Hisham Mohammad said the poor air quality was caused by the peat and bush fires on the district.
'We have managed to douse the fire yesterday but it mainly depends on the direction of the wind. The smoke haze is carried by winds from the source to other areas," he said when met.
A Fire and Rescue Department spokesman said as of noon today, Rompin has shown minimum progress as the air quality was recorded between 170 and 180 mainly because of the wind and smoke direction.
He assured that the situation on the ground was under control and firemen have been deployed to continuously monitor certain areas where fire incident could reoccur due to the hot spell.
At 1pm, Rompin and Banting, Selangor are the only two districts in the country which remains in the "unhealthy" range.
The air pollution level is categorised as good from zero to 50, moderate (51-100), unhealthy (101-200), very unhealthy (201-300) and hazardous (301 and more).