With the dry season in full effect, Belizeans are already starting to feel the heat. And with heat, comes the threat of potential wildfires. Earlier this week, a wild fire destroyed the home of Hattieville resident Wallace Rubio, who claimed that the incident was avoidable. We spoke with Kenneth Mortis of the National Fire Service to hear how we can prevent incidents like these from occurring, News Five’s Britney Gordon reports.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
As the temperatures continue to rise amid the height of the dry season, the threat of wildfires imposing on properties in rural areas becomes a greater cause for concern. The National Fire Service asserts that the impact of these fires can be minimized by implementing preventative measures. We sat down with Fire Station Supervisor, Kenneth Mortis for some advice.
Kenneth Mortis, Fire Station Supervisor, National Fire Service
“It’s that time of the year indeed. And we try to stay in close dialogue with the Met Office, i believe like everyone should and the heat is here, the dry is here and if you drive around your area, you, you’ll feel the heat combined with a lot of wind, so to speak, a lot of breeze. Factors that we should take into consideration regardless of where you’re at, whether you’re in the city or you’re in these rural areas, especially more so the rural areas. Your vegetation is important. Not only yours, but your neighbor’s vegetation, your surroundings. If you find yourself living amongst overgrown vegetation, either take the extra effort to clear a five feet minimum perimeter around your building, thus eliminating the chance of a wild land fire consuming those areas, and then putting your house at risk.”
“History have shown time and time again, and most recently, whereby structures have been consumed by fires as a result of an open brush or wild land fires and all because of, one, where we’re located. We live in these rural areas. Your closest fire station, your closest fire truck is nothing less than thirty minutes away, which would put you at a fifteen miles gap. Two, your area is so heavily overgrown by these wild land bushes that you put yourself at risk within those elements. Three, most of the time, unfortunately, these fires occur during the day. That’s when everybody’s either at home or at school. . So the few neighbors that are at home, they are busy with their own day lives. They don’t always have the time to be monitoring your house. So with these factors in mind, it is something that we must take the initial initiative, how to best protect and preserve what is ours,”
He further explained that, although the fire department attempts to respond to these fires in a timely manner, they rely on the assistance of the community to report and promptly respond to these fires before the situation becomes dire.
“Fire service, the Belize National Fire Service is committed to responding to all fires within a reasonable jurisdiction. However, do not expect that the Belize National Fire Service will be at your beck and call the minute there’s a wild land fires. Unfortunately, the one that happened most recently, neighbors are saying that the fire was apparently burning for some days and nobody did anything. Nobody called us. When it went from afar to the nearby structure, that’s when all alarms went off. It was too late.”
According to Mortis, a major contributor to these disasters is a buildup of trash and overgrown brush within the area, as these tend to be highly flammable.
“So again, like I said, its fire safety measure, so to speak, and where does fire safety actually starts? And with who does fire safety start? Fire safety starts with us. Not with you, nor my neighbor, nor my friend, nor my brother, but it starts with us, the individual. That’s where fire safety starts. Those are the measures that we should take in place to ensure that wherever we live, our vegetation is kept to the minimal. We do not have all these excessive garbage buildup, those themselves pose as a fire load. We are entrapping ourselves and we’re setting ourselves up for loss.”
Britney Gordon for News Five.
