Johor Regent decrees temporary closure for school near forest fire

Tunku Mahkota Johor Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim

ISKANDAR PUTERI: Johor Regent Tunku Mahkota Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim has decreed a temporary closure for SMK Tanjung Adang due to a forest fire near the school.

This comes after Tunku Ismail visited the burning forest along Jalan Tanjung Kupang near Kampung Pekajang here on Monday (Aug 26).

A statement posted on Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar's official Facebook page said that Tunku Ismail also visited SMK Tanjung Adang, which has 200 students.

During the visit, he decreed that the school temporarily close for the sake of the students' health.

Earlier, Johor Fire and Rescue Department director Datuk Yahaya Madis presented a briefing to Tunku Ismail on the latest action taken by the department to put out the fire.

He said more 70 officers and personnel were involved in the effort.

It was reported by Bernama that strong winds over the past few days caused the forest fire at Kampung Pekajang in Iskandar Puteri, near here, to spread to a new area of 98ha as opposed to just 16ha on Friday (Aug 23).

State Fire and Rescue Department had worked hard for 24 hours to handle it and had extinguished 45% or 44ha of fire.

The operation was carried out by 79 members including senior officers from 10 stations in Zone 1 Johor and a station from Zone 2 Johor.

In addition, five 20,000-litre capacity water tankers were used to transport water taken from nearby fire hydrants to extinguish the fire.

The fire started on Friday afternoon due to the dry weather in the state.- Star