Chutaphorn Phuangchingngam, the only female captain in Thailand’s national disaster prevention team, draws on two decades of flying to steer the Russian-made chopper through the thick smoke.
Chiang Mai had the sixth worst air quality of any major city in the world on Thursday morning, according to monitor IQAir, and the city governor has warned residents against staying outdoors.
“We use (helicopters) to put out fire in areas that are difficult to reach, especially in the mountains,“ she said.
Northern Thailand is the latest area around the world to suffer significant wildfires, after South Korea -- currently battling its biggest on record -- Japan and California.
As well as damaging important forests, the fires are fuelling Thailand’s anxieties about air pollution, which causes millions of people to need medical treatment each year.
Levels of PM2.5 pollutants -- dangerous cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- were almost 15 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit in Chiang Mai on Thursday, according to IQAir.
“There are still large numbers of farmers who continue to burn their fields,“ said Dusit Pongsapipat, head of the Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Mitigation in Chiang Mai.
“The law alone won’t stop farmers from burning,“ he said.
Until then, Chatuphorn and her team remain ready to take to the skies to do their part to clean up the air by putting out forest fires.
She remains committed to her childhood dream.
“I just wanted to touch the cloud,“ she said, after the helicopter landed. “Though now all I feel is just the smoke.”
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