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Plane arrives on fire fighting mission

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Bombardier C415 arrives at Miri Air Unit Base yesterday morning.

MIRI: The Bombardier C415 swooped low over the peat fires in Kuala Baram yesterday for an aerial firefighting.

The aircraft, also known as ‘Super Scooper’ by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), is here to assist Miri Fire and Rescue Department to douse forest fires in the area.

The same crews for the Bombardier C415 were also involved in a similar mission here two years ago.

The aircraft, which can carry up to 6,000 litres of waters, arrived at Miri Air Unit Base at Jalan Airport at 11.50am yesterday.

Bombardier C415 arrives at Miri Air Unit Base yesterday morning.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Assistant Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin (sixth right) witnessing the aerial firefighting by Bombardier C415 at the Tudan Watch Tower.

The mission began at 1.30pm with its first scooping at 1.15pm.

Today’s mission will focus on two sectors covering a total of 100 acres of land.

The aircraft would be deployed at Sector One near Hamidah Welfare Complex while the ground team (Bomba) would be at Sector Two.

The nearest water source for the aircraft to scoop from is Baram River which is located about 9km from Sector One.

According to Maritime Commander Salehuddin Zakaria, the crews of Bombardier C415 would be in Miri for five days for the purpose of aerial firefighting.

The nine crews were flown in from Subang with the mission led by its pilot Lieutenant Muhammad Saad.

For the past 15 days, peat fires have been raging in Kuala Baram which had caused the area, covering 1,283 hectares, to be enveloped in haze.

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