Fire is edging up to San Pedro Columbia village in the Toledo District tonight. The fire has been going for three weeks with villagers and volunteers fighting it as best they can. But, fueled by high temperatures and strong winds and possibly deliberate acts of arson - the fire keeps spreading and keeps advancing. Today it was reported as over three miles long, swallowing up farms, wildlife and property.
We spoke via phone with the chairman of San Pedro Columbia - who's been watching the fire for three intense weeks:
Voice of: Basilicas Choco, Chairman, San Pedro Columbia
"I've never seen a fire such as this in San Pedro, Colombia. We've been fighting fires, which are, we usually control in two or three days we control them for the past five or six years now."
"I would say on one side it's about roughly to 2 to 3 miles in length. It's like a blanket coming into the community on the other side of the farm road, it's meeting the other farm road, which is about a mile, or about half a mile a mile away in length."
"This is the first time in my life I have seen such a big, big loss. If you walk the farmers road, the longest the biggest farmers road in San Pedro, Colombia, going towards Colombia reservation. There is no more trees you can see. Everything is burned down."
"It's something sad to see. I feel for my farmers. Some of my farmers would cry with their crops."
"We have some farmers there, they need help in relation to trying to save their crops and we have a lot of the farms which are cacao, bearing cacao people depend on this cacao to sell to the markets in order for the to find their little income, noh? A lot of them are being damaged. I would say tens of acres have been damaged so far and so ah…"
"The entire zone between the village and Columbia reservation is totally burnt. Now the fire is going into Columbia reservation and is going into the community where the home are now."
"It is right now as we speak. It is about I would say, less than a mile from the it's very close to the community to getting to the houses. At some point, some of the houses in the communities are probably will see the fire sometime later. We have people who are trying to protect their little houses, all the surrounding areas, the buffer areas used by farmers."
"I fear the worst, especially in the way we have a lot of thatch house, near the farm, farm places. And I believe that if the fire continues to come, some of these thatch house might end up, house owners will definitely have to relocate or they are going to be losing their houses. I pray to God that that doesn't happen."
"The volunteers are tired. As much as we want to help, there are many people who helped. They're tired and so it's difficult. It's difficult the way forward then."
The Chairman believes the fire was man made - started by someone who was careless with slash and burn techniques. There are others who believe fires are being deliberately set. Just a few minutes ago, we got this from the Chief Forest Officer, Wilbur Sabido. He told us, quote, "The fires are not in the Columbia Forest Reserve, they are around the Columbia Village itself. At least two fires are threatening houses, and village volunteers are clearing fire paths to prevent the fire from reaching the dwellings. The terrain is difficult and the vegetation is dense and dry, and at one point we were told families had to be evacuated. The information we got was that fires are being intentionally set, this needs to be verified and confirmed. NEMO has been contacted and they are responding to ascertain if their assistance is needed by the affected families."
| 