Last week, a lightning bolt struck within the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, igniting the trees and causing a wildfire that threatening vast acreages of forest and multiple high value properties. But the reserve is managed by several entities, and together, they contained the blaze. When the smoke cleared, only 32% of the reserve received damage caused by the flames.
So while there are still fires burning in the forest, for now, they aren't a major cause for concern. But the Forest Department, along with its partners, are keeping a close eye. And yesterday, they took the media into the reserve to witness the damage firsthand, and the methods they employed to save it.
Courtney Menzies was there and has this story.
Courtney Menzies:
The smoke you see behind me is the result of wildfires burning in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. For now, these flames are across the creek, away from any private property. But last week, the blaze got too close for comfort and the Forest Department had to fight fire with fire, literally.
Shanelly Carillo Balan, Officer In Charge, Douglas D'Silva
"This is Douglas D'Silva, this is where all the camps are, the houses, the offices. The fire was coming south to north and we had to open this line here as a fire line. The fire was coming in this direction here so what we had to do was in order to protect the station, the camp on this side, it was very close, we had to back burn, and this is where you can see the big difference. So when you have the back burn you make sure it is done in a controlled environment as much as possible under the conditions that we were, fighting the wildfire, and that way we have a fire fighting the wildfire coming back and that way we were able to, it helps to make sure we create a buffer."
"And it did work in this situation because you can see it, one side of the road is burnt and the other, we saved it from continued burning."
Courtney Menzies:
"And this is the aftermath of a wildfire caused by a lightning strike. Pine trees turned to ash and soot. But firefighting efforts contained it up this point, saving the forest right across the road."
This area of the reserve is maintained by Bulridge Limited, and the manager, Amin Bedran explained that if they hadn't contained the fire at that point, it would have been disastrous.
Amin Bedran, Manager, Bulridge
"If the fire had crossed this line, we are on Baki Line, it would have been devastating because it would have burnt all the way up to Granite Carin, there's no brakes between. The only way you can fight and control a fire in pine ridge is with the roads. You can't out this with [water] you have to fight fire with fire by doing back burns."
"What's happening, we are standing here right next to Baki Line, it does look ugly, but these pole trees are tall enough, it's Caribbean Pine, all these trees are gonna survive but what were looking at is really containing for that other side. So this area, it's about 6 or 7 miles of containment, it comes out from Granite Carin, all the way to Brunton Trail, all the way to Devil's Drive so it's quite a sizable area."
And the roads in the reserve aren't just roads - they act as fire lines to stop the the flames from spreading.
Shanelly Carrillo Balan, Officer In Charge, Douglas D'Silva
"Cisco helped us in this are to just open this road because we had to create that space between the two sides of the road."
"If you see the map here, the Mountain Pine Ridge is laid out in a way that the roads act as fire lines and that's why it breaks up into compartments and sub compartments and so we see the importance of these fire lines here, year after year they can be used."
But the partners in the Pine Ridge Forest aren't out of the woods yet. Among the reserve's 100,000 acreage are resorts, camps, houses and hundreds of workers - all threatened during this particularly intense fire season.
And Fortis Belize came dangerously close to seeing their infrastructure damaged by last week's blaze, since the lightning strike was only about 7 miles away from their base. It was all hands on deck at that point - and Operations Manager Tedford Pate explained that without an Astrum helicopter helping to douse the fire, it could have gotten out of control - which would worsen the current energy crisis.
Tedford Pate, Operations Manager, Fortis Belize
"The main reason for us at Fortis Belize in wanting to eliminate this threat is because what we do at this facility is very important when it comes to providing reliable power to the country. As you all know, we're in a power crisis right now in Belize and so ensuring that we maintain power to the grid is our primary concern. Had this fire extended into the transmission system, it could have had some very dire effects to the supply of electricity from this location so we're happy that with the help of all our stakeholders and our friends, we were able to control this fire up until this point."
But now, what happens to the miles and miles of forest, these vast swathes of green that were destroyed? The portion that sustained damage from the back burn will regenerate within the next few months.
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development
"Not all the fire is bad fire, so what we hear is those hot burns can cause the crown fires at the crown of the trees to burn, which is a small percentage, those trees might not be recoverable, so we might have to harvest them if anything else."
"But the majority of it is what they call a good fire because it's a cooler fire which doesn't burn up to the crown and there would be regeneration but also because there would be a period of time when we can already start seeing the seeding and so within the next two months or so, by July/August, we'll see these fall to the ground, by that time, you have the rains come down and so you have a lot of seedlings on the ground and hopefully it would regenerate and recover as fast as possible."
But for now, while the fires are still blazing, the Forest Department is advising the public to refrain from visiting, at least until the rains return.
And when they do, there will be hundreds of acres of scorched earth to regenerate. But it could have been far worse because the team effort allowed less than 40% of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve to be affected by the wildfires.
The Ministry of the Blue Economy and Disaster Risk Management has established a Wildfire Response Task Force, led by NEMO. They will be providing immediate responses to the fires affecting particularly Toledo and Cayo. The task force held its first meeting today and is coordinating operations across the country, including in the Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve. They will also provide support to the communities in the south that have already been affected.
