Fire breaks out in Lahtarar forest again

A fifth fire broke out in the forest of Union Council Lahtarar of Kotli Sattian tehsil of Rawalpindi district, reducing trees worth millions of rupees to ashes.

Firefighters and Rescue 1122 teams scaled up the mountainous area with equipment on foot to put out the fire that broke out between the night of Friday and Saturday.

Sources said that firefighters put out the blaze after six hours of struggle. The fire burned trees worth millions of trees and wildlife including birds.

Earlier, the fire broke out in the dense forest of Baga village of Union Council Lahtara as the forest department failed to put in place arrangements to protect the forests despite being a fire season. The fire reduced the lush forest to ashes.

Earlier, forest officials completely failed to extinguish the blaze, after it broke out between Wednesday and Thursday as officials on duty were found to be missing.

According to the forest department, a large number of dry leaves strewed in the mountain forest caught fire after unidentified persons set on fire leaves. The fire was so intense that its flames went 15 to 20 feet high.

According to forest officials, a large number of birds were also burnt to ashes. The forest department faced difficulty in deploying firefighters in the mountain forest of Baga due to the difficult terrain. The fire lasted for 24 hours and almost all trees were gutted.

The Rawalpindi forest department had declared fire season from April 5 instead of April 15 due to the premature onset of drought, however, the arrangements proved futile. Seventy per cent of the dense forest was burnt to ashes.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2022.