Tonight, residents of the Toledo District are breathing in smoke and ash as fires continue to blaze near San Pedro Columbia. After weeks of fire fighting, the relentless forest fires persist and the district is now under a state of public emergency.
Students are unable to go to school and villagers near the fire wonder if their houses and their lives are in danger. NEMO has deployed teams to work with the Fire Department and the BDF, but just this afternoon, more fires sprung up - and are posing an active threat to structures in the village.
We spoke with the chairman of San Pedro Columbia and the National Coordinator of NEMO today. Courtney Menzies has this story.
This thick smoke caused by raging fires near San Pedro Columbia is the reason why the Ministry of Education cancelled classes for students in the Toledo District today.
It's been more than three weeks of non-stop fires that the villagers have tried to extinguish, but every time they quell a few, more pop up. Today the chairman said fires that just started this afternoon are now threatening the village.
Basilicas Choco, Chairman, San Pedro Columbia
"Right now the fire is threatening the community, these two fires that I'm talking about that just began are coming directly to the community. It is just like, I would say less than half a mile, quarter mile from the community, very close to the community. That's what we need to control and that's the reason that was the one we were fighting."
"On the main farm road going to Columbia Reservation there's a fire that just started, as I finish with that call, another farmer called me on the other side going by the river source, another farm road there going up, a fire started there as well. We just managed to control those fires a day and a half ago and now, it seems like it started again because I believe that the fire goes into the roots of the trees and then later on eventually it starts back."
And even if they manage to tame the flames, the smoke is choking the residents.
Basilicas Choco, Chairman, San Pedro Columbia
"Right now as I speak, I'm beginning to catch cough and sore throat because of the smoke in the community. For a couple days now, I would say a week, we have been experiencing heavy smoke in the community and because of that I believe that Ministry of Education decided to close down school today. I'm not sure for how long but it's not safe for our children to be out in this smokey environment."
This has led to the Governor General signing a proclamation declaring a state of public emergency for the Toledo District.
Today the National Coordinator at NEMO explained via Zoom that the fires have started to decrease, and while the air quality is poor, it is improving slowly.
Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator, NEMO
"We noted that there was a significant decrease in the number of fires but we still are on alert and we still maintain that readiness posture in case provide extra support and other assistance to communities as they continue to work on these fires."
"With the fires diminishing, we believe that the air quality has been improving so it's not as bad as it was a few days ago but it's an issue that we will keep our eyes on."
He also explained that based on their assessment, the damage was mainly to agriculture.
Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator, NEMO
"The most significant flare up actually happened last week and we noticed a lot of damage had occurred. We noted that when we did a site visit on Saturday alongside the Minister of the Blue Economy and Disaster Risk Management as well as area representative, Oscar Requena, what we noted is that most of the damage that had been suffered at that time was agricultural so there were some areas of concern but primarily what we noted was great destruction and damage to the agricultural sector in those affected communities of San Pedro Columbia, Crique Jute, and some areas of San Jose Hawaii."
"The issue is the ongoing heatwave, the lack of rain which really created that recipe for this fire to develop and so that really was the concern, being able to control the fire, being able to really understand where it was going and alerting people as best as possible so that they were not in danger."
This evening, a the Ya'axché Conservation Trust's Field station was under threat of fire, after the blaze jumped a fire pass. We'll keep following the story.
