Efforts continuing to put out forest fire near Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: For the third consecutive day on Thursday, the forest department continued its efforts to put out a forest fire in Madukkarai range of Coimbatore forest division.
The fire was detected in the Boluvampatti block -II reserve forest on late Tuesday evening. A firefighting team of comprising 40 members from all the seven ranges in the Coimbatore forest division was deployed. The team has been continuously working to put out the fire.
The fire was raging on a rock having dried grasses. The fire gradually spread to the downhill where there were patches trees and dried bamboos.
District forest officer N Jayaraj said that the rocky portion was inaccessible because of its steepness. The firefighting team was working on to prevent spread of the blaze to the downhill. The rock portion was a continuous stretch of around 150 hectares. Grasses in 50 hectares have been burnt.
“The burnt dry grasses on rocks were falling downhill like fire balls which increases the spread," said Jayaraj.
"Additional teams from Sirumugai area and the Nilgiris forest division are engaged. It will be possible to put out the fire by today evening, " said Jayaraj.
Coimbatore district collector Kranthi Kumar Pati inspected the area on Thursday morning and discussed with the forest department officials on the measures to be taken to put out the fire.