And just like the churches don't want that weed smoke, communities across the central Belize area are concerned about wildfire smoke. As we told you yesterday, thick smog has been hanging in the air along the George Price Highway and especially in Belmopan. And yesterday, it even reached Belize City.
As the project coordinator at the Belize Zoo explained, they predicted that this fire season would be more active, but emphasized that a lot of the wildfires could have been prevented if residents would stop lighting illegal fires - and then leaving them unmonitored.
He also told us that these fires have affected the air quality and that they've even damaged people's properties.
Jamal Andrewin Bohn, Project Coordinator, The Belize Zoo
"That's been a core part of why we've been pushing for better fire management in the Central Belize area for the past two years is that even though it's the zoo involved and these wildlife NGO's, the underlying concern for us is public health, it's the amount of heat, smoke, that is put out when these fires are started and the threats that they have to respiratory conditions and so on, so yes, that has been chronic in the areas where people don't have an option, they can't escape it, you know, they're in school, they're confined to their homes, where are they going to go, so we have had a lot of complaints in the communities with younger, elderly people with pre-existing conditions suffering even more so during this time of year with these additional fires so it is again we are trying to call on people to be more mindful and realize that fire is not something to take for granted and it really goes beyond what you intend it to do, it can really harm multiple aspects of society including the eco-systems as well."
"No loss of life, so far in this area, we have had threats to property so I believe people have had some of their properties damaged, their yards, their farms, their houses. The Ji Chan community for explain came very close and I know unfortunately there was a gentleman down near Gracie Rock last week that had to have intervention because his house was catching fire, it was at that point, so no loss of life yet but we've come very close and I say this also because the people who are responding to fires are putting themselves at risk, these people that are trying to do the right thing and defend their communities, every time we go out and respond to a fire, we're putting our own selves at risk so there is always that risk that people going out to put these things out will ultimately cause harm because of a recklessly set fire."
