Wildfires continue to rage in Cayo and tonight they are threatening to burn down a recently inaugurated ranger station - which we showed you on May 8th.
Well, tonight, the fire is on the edge of that in the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve - which is a dense forest area southeast of Teakettle village. It is home to the famous tourist attraction known as the ATM caves.
But, since yesterday - fire has been tearing through the pristine nature reserve. We spoke to the Executive Director of APAMO about it:
Jose Perez, APAMO Executive Director
"The Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve, over the last two, three days, over the entire weekend actually was battling a major fire, a run away fire into the park. Sadly, sadly, this morning, I was informed by the by the executive director of the NGO that manages the protected area that there's another big fire."
"Again, as a result of mennonite farmer, who lit and you still have other farmers who continue to light fires. Whilst the bigger one was contained, thanks to the intervention of of NEMO, with the use of helicopter and 2 bulldozers from the Ministry of Infrastructure. We have another one and a smaller one, which is just started."
Aaron Juan, Exec., Dir., Belize Karst Habitat Conservation
"Here deep in the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve, we have a team on the ground fighting fire. We have two bulldozers pushing the fire line. Right now, it's a race against the fire. As the day warms up, it becomes a little hot, very hot, and it starts burning even bigger. And so we're trying our best to do what we can just to show you a little bit of what is happening here - beautiful forests completely destroyed. We've lost possibly about 400 acres of forest already in the north, the northeast corner of the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve. As I speak, we have the bulldozer behind us pushing some of the trees that are actually on fire. And so I just want to give you a little update on what it looks like on the ground."
Jose Perez, APAMO Executive Director
"All because one farmer, one farmer was supposed to burn one acre, and from one acre, we have over hundreds of acres being burned right now."
"As we speak in the behind Teakettle, where the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve is farmers are still burning, farmers are still burning and so I take this opportunity to call on the on the respective authority agriculture department, the forest department to get involved and do what needs to be done. And so the over 600 acres is really really under threat right now.
"Imagine fighting these fires back to back. Actually they had a tree which nearly fell on one of the rangers, so your life at stake, your life is being risked out there. Definitely more help is needed and again this is this is a crisis. I think we did not prepare well, we did not plan well, this is something that happens every year. Along with the respective government entities I'm hoping that we don't go through this again next year.
"Tapir mountain has the strictest categorization, it's a nature reserve. It has dense rainforest, dense thick rainforest with extensive, I mean, from the largest mamal, like the jaguars being sighted in there, the howler monkeys. It's known for over 100 species of birds. And it's also within, within there you have the the famous Actun Tunichil Muknal, which is a cave, the ATM cave, which is widely used by the tourism industry."
"So it's a bloodline for tourism. And there's a lot that we stand to lose."
Late evening reports say that due to some logistical breakdowns with fuel, the fire got out of control and is getting closer to the building they just inaugurated. Most likely, major assistance cannot reach there until tomorrow - which may be too late for that structure.
