A Bell 412 helicopter of the Sri Lanka Air Force has been deployed to help control a rapidly spreading fire inside the Muthurajawela Sanctuary reserve, Hiru News reported.
The Air Force said a special operation is under way to contain the blaze by dropping water from the air.
Why the sanctuary burns
Muthurajawela is Sri Lanka’s largest coastal peat bog, lying just north of Colombo between Negombo Lagoon and the sea. Peat wetlands are unusually difficult to extinguish: fire moves below the surface through dried organic soil, where it can smoulder out of reach of ground crews and reignite after the visible flames are out. Aerial water-dropping is used to slow the surface spread while ground teams work the perimeter.
The sanctuary sits against dense settlement on the Colombo–Negombo corridor, which is what makes an uncontrolled spread a populated-area problem rather than a purely ecological one.
Not reported
The report does not give the area burning, when the fire started or what caused it, whether any homes or people are at risk, or whether ground firefighting units and the Department of Wildlife Conservation are working alongside the Air Force. It does not say whether the fire has since been brought under control.
This report rests on a single verified newsroom; no other Sri Lankan outlet had filed on the fire at the time of writing.
