“The fire control centre gave us 20 litres of fuel and lent us leaf blowers. Once the season ends, we have to return them,” he told AFP, standing before a blackened, ash-strewn stretch of land.
“Everyone can see how serious it is now. It’s so dark and hazy you can’t see a thing, and it’s gone on for far too long.”
He worries about his home next to a forest, and his health.
“We now live with this smoke, breathing it in every day.”
On Wednesday, a volunteer firefighter was found dead from suspected exhaustion linked to heat and underlying health conditions, officials told AFP.
Pollution is particularly dangerous to those with existing health problems, the elderly and children.
In Chiang Mai, the government has installed hundreds of “dust-free rooms” – equipped with air purifiers and positive pressure systems that keep out the polluted air – including at the retirement facility that Watwilai Chaiwan now calls home.
The retired nurse, 82, said the pollution made her afraid to go out and aggravated her dizziness and migraines.
“It’s a real problem for the elderly. You have to wear a mask the entire time you’re breathing this air,” she told AFP.
Thailand’s government held talks this week on the haze, and some districts in Chiang Mai have issued disaster declarations to help speed up financial support.
But clean air activists say more is needed, and are pushing for the government to move quickly on clean air legislation that stalled last year with the dissolution of parliament.
“A normal government would have been concerned about clean air not only now but a long time ago,” said Kanongnij Sribuaiam, legal team leader at Thailand Clean Air Network, which pushed for the legislation.
If no action is taken by May 13, the legislation will expire and the process will have to start from scratch, she added.
“The public is very disappointed.”
