Fires burn over 600 hectares of Benguet forests in February

February 25, 2020

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet- Fires suspected to be caused by villagers' farming activities coupled with heat, wind and other factors, have eaten up over 600 hectares of forestlands in Benguet this month.

Starting in barangay Adaoay and Anchokey in Kabayan town on February 11 lasting for over a week, grasslands and pine forests along mostly steep mountain sides exposed to the sun became a fire hazard, the environment department in the Cordillera said.

Although firefighters and volunteers were able to extinguish the fire in the early morning of February 18, the blaze reignited after several hours and was put ou at noon on that same day, the Office of Civil Defense Cordillera said.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Cordillera said a total of 643.69 hectares of natural pine forests were burned, including forest plantations under the Expanded National Greening Program.

According to the OCD-Cordillera,  probers found out the fires in Kabayan started between sitio Sacob and Abat in barangay Adaoay where there are  vegetable gardens. 

 “These community livelihood activities are suspected causes of the forest fires,” said Albert Mogol, director of the OCD-Cordillera said.  

Meanwhile, firefighters in Baguio and Benguet were busy for over a week responding to forest and structural fires.

On Monday, Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Baguio firefighters rushed to three fire sites in just one day.  

A forest fire in the vicinity of Maryhurst Seminary was put out before spreading to Barangay Lucnab near the boundary of Baguio City and Itogon, Benguet.

A grass fire at Barangay Camp 8 in Baguio City also erupted on Monday after a resident burned his garbage. Personnel of the Baguio Bureau of Fire Protection rushed to the neighboring Sablan, Benguet to help extinguish a structural fire where an 11-year old boy was killed. DMS