Fire destroys more than 1,500 hectares of forest in Nicaragua

Fire destroys more than 1,500 hectares of forest in Nicaragua

07 March 2009

published by news.xinhuanet.com


Nicaragua — A total of 1,540 hectares of forest have been destroyed by a fire, which erupted two days ago in Nicaragua’s western Pilas de Hoyo Hill and Cosiguina Volcano, the Forestall National Institute (Inafor) said on Friday.

In the municipality of Paz Centro, anti-fire brigades fought the conflagration which destroyed 0.698 hectares of forest in recovering, Inafor head William Schwartz said.

The communitarian brigades formed by citizens from the area have been fighting the fire since it broke out two days ago, while the Civil Defense has sent three trucks with officers from the Nicaraguan army to help put out the blaze, he added.

“I made a special call to the citizens who extract honey and hunters of wild animals who use fire for their activities, to make more efforts on not allowing their fire to turn into a forest fire,” Schwartz said.

The Inafor has set up a training plan for the anti-fire brigades to face forestall fires in the country as it expected an increase of fires in the coming summer.

On Thursday, a fire was reported in the Natural Reserve of Cosiguina Volcano in the province of Chinandega, 132km southwest of capital Managua.

Some 9,000 hectares of forest were destroyed by fires in the western part of the country in 2008.


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