Madukkarai: IAF helicopter pressed to douse forest fire in 10 hectares

COIMBATORE: A helicopter from Indian Air Force (IAF) station in Sulur was pressed into service to douse the fire, raging for the sixth consecutive day at the Madukkarai forest range in Coimbatore on Sunday.

The chopper lifted water from Malampuzha dam in neighbouring Kerala state using ‘bambi’ buckets to extinguish the fire, which broke out on 11 April. “The IAF performed ten sorties to bring around 3,000 litres of water every time to prevent and douse the spread of fire. With the assistance of IAF, the fire in almost 90 per cent of the forest area has been doused,” said an official of the forest department.

Over 200 staff including anti-poaching watchers (APW), forest guards and others staff roped in from Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Tirupur and Erode districts were battling day in and out for the past few days to control the massive fire. Yet, the fire continued to spread out due to dry patches of grass and bamboo trees on the hill terrain.

The operation became more challenging as it was a steep terrain and couldn’t be reached to douse the fire. Also, burning dry grasses rolled down like fire balls thereby preventing the forest department staff from going upwards. It is yet to be decided if the services of IAF will be available on Monday to carry out the fire fighting operations.