According to a series of reports posted on Pa Khlok Municipality Facebook page, the subdistrict on Phuket’s eastern coast had witnessed at least four fires during the nine days from Mar 15 through Mar 23.
In the first case emergency workers had to respond to a fire at a small landfill, while the other two incidents were a residential fire and two forest fires.
The timeline of recorded incidents is as follows:
- Wednesday, Mar 15. Nighttime fire at a landfill adjacent to a warehouse near Baan Pa Khlok School. Possible cause of the fire was not specified. No injuries were reported.
- Wednesday, Mar 22. Daytime fire at a house in Promphan Village in Ban Phak. Electric fault was named as a suspected cause of the incident. No injuries were reported.
- Wednesday, Mar 22. Daytime fire at Soi Papa Ban Yamu. Pictures from the scene show burned vegetation at a water truck filling station allowing to classify the incident as a forest fire. Only damage to property was reported.
- Thursday, Mar 23. Daytime forest fire by the side of Sai Laem Sai Rd in Baan Para. No injuries were reported.
In all four cases firefighters succeeded in preventing the fire from spreading uncontrollably, though Pa Khlok Municipality did not say anything about the size of the areas affected.
Following the first fire, which took place at a garbage dumping site, the municipality posted on its Facebook page three notices regarding landfill fires, all marked as originally issued by the Pollution Control Department (PCD).
The first notice contained guidelines on “fundamentals of extinguishing fires” at garbage dumping sites. The second one was about “risk factors which can cause a fire at a waste disposal site”. The third notice was even more field-specific and devoted to the management of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) storage facilities.
No guidelines for wildfire prevention have been published so far. Yet Pa Khlok Municipality remains the only local administration in Phuket to post at least some warnings amid the continuing dry season.
Be the first to comment.