Forest fire still raging in Haripur

HARIPUR: The fire on Tuesday continued to burn down trees in Haripur along the boundary with Islamabad as the authorities failed to control the blaze for the third consecutive day.

The fire, which started on Sunday, reportedly reached near the villa of first lady Tehmina Durrani in the whispering pine resort housing area, forcing the administration of Islamabad and Haripur to reach there and control the blaze.

The inmates and the property of the PM’s wife remained safe, local people, police and forest officials told journalists.

The wildfire has burned down several acres of forestland in the Makhniyal range of Khanpur Tehsil.

According to official sources and villagers, the forest fire that erupted from the private forestland of Kotla village had spread to the reserved forest after damaging trees on a vast area.

Sources said that when the wildfires started approaching Tehmina Durrani’s villa, she was at home and got out of the bungalow using the backyard route and reached Islamabad.

On her information, the CDA officials, capital city’s deputy commissioner and other officials rushed to the scene with fire-brigades and managed to put out the forest fire after an effort of a couple of hours and protected the property of the prime minister’s wife.

Deputy Commissioner Haripur and DFO Haripur also reached the villa.

SHO Makhniyal Chanzeb Tanoli also confirmed that the forest fire had spread to the villa of Tehmina Durrani but the timely action protected the inmates and the property.

DFO Haripur Farhad Khan said that his teams and volunteers were busy putting out the fire but heavy winds made their job difficult.

He said that around 60 to 70 hectares of forestland in Makhniyal forest range, both the reserved and private property, was damaged and the cause of fire was being investigated.