News Forum - Parks and sanctuaries closed by fire in N.Thailand

[Thaiger]

Thailand’s air pollution centre has asked the Department of National Parks to close eight parks and wildlife sanctuaries in northern provinces to control forest fires. Department head Pinsak Suraswadi said that the closures will allow give firefighters greater flexibility and to deal with problems in the parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Average PM2.5 levels in the …

The story Parks and sanctuaries closed by fire in N.Thailand as seen on Thaiger News.

Read the full story

[KaptainRob]

Widespread rain overnight should have dampened or extinguished most forest fires.  Awoke to a cool northerly breeze and crisp clear air, unusual for mid-Feb, though very welcome.

[aladdin]

Rain most welcome. Good effect to lower smoke will last till it gets dry. I remember that the firefighters were fighting the fires in 2020 without proper gear or support, and some in sandals. Several groups in Chiang Mai collected money for food for the firefighters and footwear. I hope conditions are better now. 

[KaptainRob]

1 minute ago, aladdin said:

Rain most welcome. Good effect to lower smoke will last till it gets dry. I remember that the firefighters were fighting the fires in 2020 without proper gear or support, and some in sandals. Several groups in Chiang Mai collected money for food for the firefighters and footwear. I hope conditions are better now. 

All firefighters I've seen have good protective gear now but villagers often get amongst the action in little more than a pair of shorts.

[Ramanathan.P]

Forest fire.....natural made or man made?...I have my doubts as most of the burning marks are near human settlement and along both sides of the roads.....based on my observation after riding 6470km in Central and Northern Thailand just a week ago.......

[KaptainRob]

1 hour ago, Ramanathan.P said:

Forest fire.....natural made or man made?...I have my doubts as most of the burning marks are near human settlement and along both sides of the roads.....based on my observation after riding 6470km in Central and Northern Thailand just a week ago.......

The smaller ones seem to be close to villages or roads and are attended to in short order.  Most are caused by errant villagers doing something stupid like burning off patches of grass or rubbish.

Cause of the major fires in State forest or Military exercise areas are unknown.

[HolyCowCm]

It is everything combined that contribute to the fire and smoke problems. Even where my house is we have a park with grass and the caretaker religiously burns the cut left overs now being twice a week as is doing it in increments. And this not so far outside the city of CM, but is quite rampant of burn off att hsi time of years. Like an internal Thai clock that says, time to burn.