Dry season brings danger of bush fires
It is a threat that thousands of Belizeans face every year, the product of a growing population that continues to expand into terrain that is highly susceptible to wildfires. Today I visited what is no doubt only the first of many blazes to come.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Black smoke could clearly be seen rising above the trees in Lord?s Bank Village. A bush fire was burning and spreading across the land dangerously close to the Robinson’s residence.
Jennifer Robinson, Resident, Lords Bank
“It’s really uncomfortable because you can get away–you always hear about weather and you can say that you will runaway from that. But this, you have to just sit and just pray that it won?t catch the house or soh. So it?s really uneasy. It?s a real uneasy feeling you have. I have things in my home that are dear to me and my kids, and it will be a great loss to lose the things that we have. Me and my kids we work hard, so just to hear that around us it?s not a good feeling.”
Bush fires are not uncommon this time of the year. In fact, during the dry season from March to May, the National Fire Service receives up to forty calls a day, especially from nervous residents living in rural areas of the Belize District.
Jacqueline Woods
“Authorities believe this fire started after a couple of men came into the area to burn bush to clear their land and the blaze got out of control.”
Fire Chief Henry Baizar says the fires are usually the result of someone?s careless actions.
Henry Baizar, Fire Chief
“People go and try to burn their property and the fire gets away from them, people throwing cigarettes through vehicle windows on the side of the road, and it could be from combustion, but that rarely happens because as for today, the sun is not that hot to have that sort of fire.”
Baizar says they do not have the manpower to respond to all the calls. Isolated fires tend to burn themselves out, but when the blaze is a threat to people’s lives and property the firefighters do their best to contain it and make the area as safe as possible.
This afternoon, the firemen could not reach all the hotspots, but used a specific tactic to stop the flames from spreading further and burning the Robinson’s residence.
Henry Baizar
“If the truck cannot reach there, because we don?t want the truck to go off the hard land because if they stuck there they are very heavy. So we use backpacks. We have some small backpacks that we carry and machetes and that sort of thing. But it?s a very tedious job and it?s dangerous depending on the size of the fire, so we have to use all sorts of tactics in trying to out the fires.”
Because the Robinson’s kept their yard clean of bush and debris, it did prevent the fire from coming onto their property.
Jennifer Robinson
“All I would like to ask is for people to be careful when cleaning their land. If they don?t have access to water, then I really don?t make sense to start a fire. Think about people that live in the area, it could be only one person, but still they are human beings. But I really would like to ask?this is the Lord?s Bank area, but whatever area and it is dry and full of these tall bushes around, be careful when dealing with fire.”
Baizar says it’s important for residents to keep their properties clean at all times. This is one way, he says, for homeowners to minimise the dangers from wildfires.
