Havana – More than 1,000 firefighters were working Sunday to put out a blaze in western Cuba that has destroyed between 600-700 hectares (1,500-1,750 acres) of forest.
Brigades of workers from the forest protection corps, or CGB, along with volunteers, were trying to control the blaze stretching from the El Caguazal area, where it started, to Punta de la Sierra in far western Pinar del Rio province, local media reported.
The media said that fighting the fire was being complicated by the fact that access to the area was very difficult, adding that steam rollers, cistern trucks, helicopters, and water-carrying airplanes were all being used to try and douse the blaze.
An expert with the CGB’s fire management department, Raul Gonzalez Rodriguez, told the official daily Juventud Rebelde that the fire was detected on Friday and since then it had “affected the (region’s) plantations and natural pine forests, according to preliminary reports.”
Between 1996 and 2005, authorities registered 686 fires of this kind in Pinar del Rio which destroyed 17,600 hectares (44,000 acres) of forest. About 45 percent of the blazes occurred between the months of March and May, according to official figures.
Between Jan. 1 and April 25 this year, 218 forest fires were reported on the communist island which destroyed about 4,320 hectares (roughly 10,800 acres), the CGB said.
In 2005, more than 11,700 hectares (29,250 acres) of forest were burned “to a greater or lesser degree” in 378 fires, 86 percent of which were determined to have been caused either by negligence or arson. Losses from the blazes were calculated by Cuban authorities at $15.1 million. EFE
