Rain puts out Haripur forest fire

HARIPUR: The rainfall that lashed different parts of Haripur saved hundreds of acres of forestland which had been under fire for the last two days in the Gandiyan Forest Range of Haripur, local people and official sources said on Sunday.

The fire had erupted in the Gandiyan forest of Haripur district on Saturday morning and was spreading fast close to the residential area forcing the villagers to take part in the rescue operation.

However since there was no modern equipment available with the Forest Department or district government the locals used the conventional method of fire- fighting using the tree branches which resulted in the death of two villagers, Ejaz and Abdul Rasheed.

Two other villagers also were fainted in the heavy smoke in the same operation, official sources told. Haripur Deputy Commissioner Arifullah Awan announced Rs300,000 compensation for each victim of wildfire incident. District Nazim Akhtar Nawaz Khan ordered a probe into the fire eruption. He asked the Divisional Forest Officer to submit him a complete report on Tuesday. The nazim approached the Federal Disaster Management Authority for making proper arrangements in fighting a wildfire in Haripur.

He asked the provincial government to extend additional financial support to families of two volunteers who were killed during fire-fighting. There was no data available on the total loss from the Gandiyan forest fire. Divisional Forest Officer Rizwan Kazmi was not available for comments.