Raging fire in an area of about 400 rai (about 160 acres) on a high mountain in Samoeng district was causing thick smog in the Northern Province.
The fire started on the mountain in Ban Mae Sab village of Samoeng Tai sub-district on March 29. Local forest officials and volunteers had a difficult uphill walk on steep trails to the site to control the fire.
Two firefighting helicopters were deployed to assist them but their flights were stopped after about 40 drops of water did not bear fruit because the fire was expanding in a dry bamboo forest.
Firefighting then depended only on officials and volunteers on the ground. At 10.30pm they could put out 33 hotspots. They had yet to extinguish 44 hotspots which were raising smog in Chiang Mai today.
Officials blamed the fire on people collecting forest products. It already damaged 442 rai of the forest. (TNA)
