KUANTAN, April 21 — Nearly 40 hectares of a forest near the Sultan Ahmad Shah Maritime Academy here have reportedly been on fire since Thursday.

Gebeng Fire and Rescue Station head Syed A. Jamaludin Syed Mohamed said they only found out about the fire at 4 pm on Thursday when a patrol team spotted it.

So far, he said, only four hectares of the area on fire had been extinguished.

"We believe the fire started deep in the forest, but we cannot determine the cause yet as we are having difficulty getting there.

"For now, we are fighting the blaze from a coconut plantation next to the forest,” he said when contacted today, adding that it took them almost 40 minutes to pass through the plantation to reach the border of the burning forest.

Apart from not having direct access, he said they also faced other problems, like limited water supply and changing wind directions.

He said Department of Environment staff and 10 coconut plantation workers were also helping them fight the blaze, which he expected to be fully extinguished in one week. — Bernama