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Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah fire and rescue department has extinguished 3,904.45ha of open burning since Jan 1, says its director, Abdul Razak Muda.

He said 1,435 fires were reported during the period, with efforts ongoing to extinguish fires in the remaining 1.49ha in Tuaran.

There were 578 cases of open burning in forest areas covering 2,180.85ha, followed by agricultural land and vegetable farms (911.06ha/96 cases), shrubs and grassland (714.48ha/746 cases) and peatland (99.3ha/43 cases).

“Out of the 27 districts in Sabah, only three districts, namely Telupid, Tongod, and Kalabakan, have not experienced any open burning incidents so far,” he said in a statement.

He said Kota Belud recorded the largest area of open burning at 725.8ha, followed by Kuala Penyu (688.73ha) and Tuaran (616.43ha).

Within the past 24 hours, the department received 43 reports of fires involving 105.05ha.