Fire of­fi­cers bat­tling the bush fires in Ma­haica Point Fortin for the sixth con­sec­u­tive day said they be­lieve the fire has been re­duced to 50 per cent of its ca­pac­i­ty af­ter they doused the flames with an es­ti­mat­ed 40,000 litres of wa­ter on Thurs­day.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that the of­fi­cers were on the scene at­tack­ing the fires from Richard­son Street from 9 am un­til 6 pm on Thurs­day.

On Sat­ur­day, the fire be­gan around 11.30 am and fire of­fi­cials have been grap­pling to quash the blaze since.

The thick smoke re­duces vis­i­bil­i­ty and has a pun­gent odour re­sem­bling that of burn­ing crude oil.

Some res­i­dents said they have been ex­pe­ri­enc­ing chest and throat pains, ex­cru­ci­at­ing headaches and short­ness of breath as a re­sult of smoke in­hala­tion.