QUETTA: According to officials, on Wednesday, a massive fire that started in the pine forest in the Dera Ismail Khan area of the Suleman Range on Tuesday night spread to the neighboring Sherani district of Balochistan.
To put the fire under control, the Sherani district administration immediately dispatched officials from the forest department and firefighters to the hilly region.
A senior Sherani district official stated, “Efforts are underway with the help of the Frontier Corps and levies to control the fire,” adding that winds were hindering the firefighting operation.
According to reports, efforts made by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government up until this point have proven fruitless as the fire has consumed a significant portion of the forest in the Sherani district.
The forest fire served as a somber reminder of the blaze in 2022, which claimed the lives of hundreds of pine trees on the same mountain range and cost millions of rupees to repair.
Despite the frantic efforts of forest officials, security personnel, and locals, the fire could not be contained for many days. Finally, an Ilyushin-76 aerial firefighter aircraft sent by the Iranian government brought the forest fire under control after two sorties.
