Teams of firefighters supported by two helicopters fought a forest fire that started on Monday night in the hilly Samoeng district. Hundreds of acres of mountain forest land have been damaged by the fire.
Samoeng Fire Station chief, Chakra Dissayanan, said the fire was caused by villagers burning crops and quickly spread to a 3 km front.
“There is no forest fire in the area for many years, which caused dry leaves to accumulate into a large amount of fuel. The reason the fire spread so quickly is that this is a bamboo forest. It’s quite difficult to get into the burnt spot because of the heavy wind and the steep area. The fire is expected to be controlled by this evening.”