Kulai: Three more schools have been ordered to close with immediate effect following a fire at a rubber-processing factory in the Sengkang industrial area near Kulai that has been burning since Tuesday.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, Kulai Member of Parliament Teo Nie Ching stated that the affected schools are Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Taman Kota Kulai, SK Taman Kota Kulai 2, and Sekolah Agama Taman Kota Kulai. This brings the total number of impacted institutions to five.

Teo, who is also Deputy Communications Minister, confirmed that the Kulai District Education Office has organized home-based teaching and learning sessions for all pupils from these schools until Friday. She shared in a Facebook post that, as of early this morning, flames are still active and firefighting operations are ongoing.

Previously, two schools-Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Sengkang and SJKC Kulai Besar-were ordered to close, affecting 1,531 pupils who will also switch to home-based learning.

The Fire and Rescue Department received an emergency call at 4:37 pm on Tuesday about the blaze, which involved a semi-permanent plastic storage facility measuring 300ft by 500ft by 80ft.

As of this morning, the 34-member firefighting operation was 90 percent complete. The effort has been bolstered by 11 additional personnel, with industry players supplying 20 drums of foam, each with a capacity of 20 liters. An additional 30 drums were deployed from a neighboring state to aid the operation.

Four excavators are being used to remove debris to assist firefighting efforts beneath the piles of materials, while the Johor Fire and Rescue Department's drone unit is conducting thermal imaging surveillance to detect residual heat sources that could potentially reignite the fire.