Soldiers and volunteers douse a fire in a community forest in Uttaradit province, photo by Third Army. (Photo: thethaiger.com) Bangkok (VNA) – A total of 3,768 potential wildfire hotspots were detected across Thailand in a day, making a new record for 2023, according to the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Gistda).
Images from the US's Suomi National Polar Orbiter Management Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite on February 28 showed that Thailand had the most hotpots in the region. It was followed by Laos (3,370), Myanmar (2,809), Cambodia (2,758) and Vietnam (732).
Most of the hotspots in Thailand were in conservation forest (1,937), national forest reserves (1,043), agricultural areas (271), community areas (271), agricultural land reform areas (219) and along highways (18), according to Gistda.
Provinces with the highest number of hotspots were Kanchanaburi (577), Tak (495), Uttaradit (237), Nan 212) and Phrae (190).
A total of 52,000 hotspots have been detected in Thailand by February 28, Gistda said. The agency warned that forest fires and hotspots might bring with them high level of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), particularly in border areas, which are most affected by fires and haze pollution from neighbouring countries.
A report from the Centre for Air Pollution Mitigation (CAPM) on March 1 revealed that the air quality index (AQI) in Thailand varied from healthy to very unhealthy while the level of PM2.5 ranged from 14 μg/m³ đến 200 μg/m³, surpassing the permitted level.
Over 130 locations in 39 provinces were found to have an unhealthy AQI level, or above 50 μg/m³, while 23 others were detected to have AQI of over 150 μg/m, which can have serious adverse health effect on sensitive groups./.
