DERA ISMAIL KHAN/HARIPUR: Scores of trees were destroyed in two fire incidents here.

A fire broke out in the Suleman mountain range in Darazinda merged tribal sub-division in Dera Ismail Khan district on Wednesday night damaging olive and chilgoza trees.

Rescue 1122 district emergency officer Fazal Manan said the residents set fire to dry grass, which engulfed a large area within minutes.

He said the fire affected olive and chilgoza orchards.

The Rescue 1122 workers reached there by foot and controlled the fire after several hours saving the nearby orchards.

Meanwhile, a wildfire destroyed acres of forestland in Chajiyan village council here.

Former naib nazim of the area Mohammad Matloob said the fire began at around 4pm on Wednesday afternoon in the Koh-i-Siribang forest area and continued until 3am on Thursday.

He said the fire, which also spread to the neighbouring reserved forest, destroyed hundreds of mature pine trees and saplings before the residents put it out using conventional methods.

When contacted, Khanpur range officer Syed Toqir Shah claimed that the fire broke out in a private forest area and it didn’t damage the neighbouring reserved forest.

He also insisted that his workers rushed to the area soon after learning about the wildfire and extinguished it by midnight.

The official said the fire broke out as dry grass was burned for fresh growth in the coming monsoon.

He said the registration of FIR and damage assessment was underway.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2021