Fire: The fire that started Friday night above Samdrupjongkhar Primary School has now been contained after two days.

The fire damaged about 100 acres of forests.

The division’s chief forest officer, Sangay Dorjee, said that since the area is a tropical forest and contains only broadleaved woods, not much damage was done.

How the fire was started is still under investigation.

Sangay Dorjee said that since the fire broke out at night, it was impossible to put off the fire, and firefighters and volunteers battled the fire almost the entire next day. Steep slope posed great challenge to the firefighters.

“Just to make sure fire doesn’t come to the school side, we burnt grasses from bottom of the hill to clear the ground and to stop fire from spreading since there will be no substance to burn and the fire can’t reach the school area,” said Sangay Dorjee. “But we can’t take it for granted. Wind could ignite the fire.”

The causes, he said, was difficult to find since there is no proper border demarcation, although some claimed the fire could have been started from neighbouring Indian border.

This is the first forest fire incident recorded in Samdrupjongkhar proper this year.

Yangchen C Rinzin,  Samdrupjongkhar