Soldiers and volunteers douse a fire in a community forest in Uttaradit province, photo by Third Army. (Photo: thethaiger.com) Bangkok (VNA) – Atotal of 3,768 potential wildfire hotspots were detected across Thailand in a day, makinga new record for 2023, according to the Geo-Informatics and SpaceTechnology Development Agency (Gistda).
Images from the US's SuomiNational Polar Orbiter Management Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite on February28 showed that Thailand had the most hotpots in the region. It was followed byLaos (3,370), Myanmar (2,809), Cambodia (2,758) and Vietnam (732).
Most of the hotspots in Thailandwere 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 highestnumber of hotspots were Kanchanaburi (577), Tak (495), Uttaradit(237), Nan 212) and Phrae (190).
A total of 52,000 hotspots have beendetected in Thailand by February 28, Gistda said. The agency warned that forestfires 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 hazepollution from neighbouring countries.
A report from the Centre forAir Pollution Mitigation (CAPM) on March 1 revealed that the air quality index(AQI) in Thailand varied from healthy to very unhealthy while the level ofPM2.5 ranged from 14 μg/m³ đến 200μg/m³, surpassing the permitted level.
Over 130 locations in39 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 haveserious adverse health effect on sensitive groups./.
