Fires in Nicaragua
Fire Activities in Nicaragua and Neighbouring Countries
24April 2003
Latest Satellite Image :
Fires Central America
On April 22, 2003, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite captured this image of fires burning across the Yucatan Peninsula and Central America.
Source: MODIS
Situationon 24 April 2003
Forest fires rage in northern Nicaragua countryside
MANAGUA, Nicaragua Legislators on Wednesday asked President Enrique Bolanos’ government to declare an environmental emergency to better cope with forest fires raging in northern Nicaragua.
Local authorities say three months of fires has destroyed 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of woodlands in Nueva Segovia province, on the border with Honduras.
Government statistics report the damage was far less widespread but say that in the last 35 days, 16 fires have destroyed 6,375 hectares (15,755 acres) of forests in five Nueva Segovia cities.
Flames continue to spread in one of those locales, Jalapa, where 1,300 soldiers, police officers, property owners, and volunteers were using buckets, poles, and other small tools donated by the government of Japan to fight the fire.
Forest fires are a yearly problem in Nicaragua, but Julio Herrera of the National Forestry Institute said the fires were made worse in Nueva Segovia by drought and farmers who burned off land to plant crops. Herrera said the most valuable property destroyed in the area is likely as much as 4,000 hectares (9,885 acres) of pine tree and coffee plantations.
In a letter to Bolanos on Wednesday, Christian Social Unity Sen. Agustin Jarquin asked the Environmental and Natural Resources Ministry to “assume its responsibility.” Jarquin asked the ministry to declare an environmental emergency in Nueva Segovia and to solicit donations to help finance firefighting efforts from friendly governments around the world.
Source: Associated Press
Background Information
Health Guidelines for Vegetation Fire Events
Information on protection of people from vegetation fire smokecan be found in the guidelines document. Please enter the document through theGFMC portal at:
https://gfmc.online/programmes/un/who/who.html
Regional Mesoamerica Wildland Fire Network: Regional andnational widland fire status reports
The website of the regional Mesoamerica network contains a largenumber of national and regional analyses on wildland fire, including thesituation in Nicaragua:
https://gfmc.online/GlobalNetworks/MesoAmerica/MesoAmerica.html
IFFN County Notes: Nicaragua
Sistema Nacional de Prevención y Control de Incendios Forestales(SIPECIF)
http://www.sipecif.gob.gt/portal.html
