Forest fire continues to rage in Coonoor

COIMBATORE: For the second consecutive day, a helicopter from Indian Air Force (IAF) station in Sulur was pressed into service to douse the fire raging at the forest area in Forestdale in Coonoor forest range on Sunday.

Following a request by the state administration, a helicopter from Air Force Station in Sulur was engaged in the fire fighting operation.

“The IAF helicopter continued its operation for the second day by lifting water from Ralliah dam and poured over the forest areas to extinguish the fire. The bambi bucket carried a maximum of 3,500 litres of water,” said an official.

As heavy winds triggered faster spread of fire, more than 150 fire service personnel from Coonoor, Kotagiri, Ooty, Gudalur, Mettupalayam and Sathyamangalam areas were involved in the fire fighting operations. They have been battling day in and out for the last five days to put out the fire.

“Despite deployment of a helicopter, the fire spread out to seven spots from three due to heavy winds on Saturday. The dried camphor trees and shrubs in the forest area led to faster spread of fire. Over 100 acres of forest area has been burnt in fire so far,” said an official.

However, the forest department officials claimed to have contained the spread of the fire and are hopeful of completely dousing the fire by Monday. A man-made fire to burn dry weeds, abutting the forest area at a tea estate led to spread out of the fire in Forestdale. Four persons were arrested in connection with the fire.