Over the past 2 weeks, we've been reporting on the wildfires that were wreaking havoc in the Cayo District, and smoking out major communities nearby. Well, a joint press release from all the organizations involved in the fight against these fires, says that the situation is under control, for now.
That release notes that downpour over the weekend brings an end to the weeks of firefighting effort by the Forest Department, the Fire Department, the Towns, and City Councils many other partner organizations, including PACT, BECOL, and several conservation NGO's.
This afternoon, we got an opportunity to speak with a spokesperson for the National Fire Service about the important role that this department played in putting out these devastating wildfires:
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service
"It was a coordinate effort like you justly aid, but luckily we got in under control before it could have created more damage than what it actually did. In terms of equipment-wise it is no secret our trucks are old and we have mechanics working on our trucks day in day out across the country. Luckily for us we teamed up with a bunch of volunteers from Cayo and then we can go down south in Punta Gorda and other NGO's assisted us with water bowsers and so forth to continuously supply our trucks with water, not just water because we actually had to physically put in the work in terms of machete and rakes and beaters and the whole nine yards. It was a physical demanding task, but once you sign up as a firefighter this is part of what comes with the territory, you're not just going to have an easy day doing structural firefighting, you're not going to have an easy day responding to an RTA. You're going to have a full days' work whereby you would be sweating and you really will be putting physical labour trying to contain these violent fires. However, the cause of these fires some stems from manmade, some stems from the elements of the weather, but at the end of the day it's the fire department that will always get the first call. The forestry department has come onboard and then of course what we are trying to encourage is these municipalities to gets some volunteers. The volunteer system within the municipalities serves as the first response until the national fire service can actually arrive on the location. Wherever these fires happen it's not always going to be 5 minutes away and then these trucks don't take off at a dime and they don't stop on a dime, it is going to take some while to get there and then implement our firefighting strategy."
The use of crop dusters turned air-tankers was successful at controlling the smoke, and when combined with the ground support, it was considered a worthwhile investment to safeguard the public health of the residents of the Cayo District.
A total of 187 water bombing flights were flown over the Cayo District from 2 aircraft. That was accompanied by many hours of ground effort to put out smoldering fires. This was the largest forest fire to take place in the Vaca Forest Reserve, while smaller fires threatened Arenal and Benque Viejo.
Several of these fires were caused by Milpa clearing by farmers, which escaped into wildfires. Those burned rapidly through the forest due to low humidity, high day-time temperatures, and strong winds.
A release says, quote, "The Ministry, via the Forest Department, will continue implementing its fire monitoring plan as the fire season continues while the Department of the Environment is currently formulating more stringent and long-term legislative actions to prevent a reoccurrence of these unprecedented fires." End quote.
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