Chetumal, Q.R. — The Quintana Roo government has received brigadiers from other states who have arrived to help battle wildfires. The arrival of the additional help was coordinated by la Comisión Nacional Forestal (Conafor) who require assistance putting out the 11 fires currently burning.
More than 200 firemen tend to the daily task of trying to extinguish the fires of which some have been burning for more than a week. Elements from Civil Protection, Conafor, the Secretary of the Navy (Semar) and the National Defense (Sedena) along with volunteers, have been battling fires that continue to erupt in various parts of the state.
Director general of the Coordinación Estatal de Protección Civil Adrián Martínez Ortega says that in most of cases, the fires have been caused by poachers, burning of agriculture and clandestine garbage dumps and negligence of smokers. Conafer reports of the 42 fires already this year, 11 of them have been in Othón P. Blanco, 1 in José María Morelos, 7 in Bacalar, 8 in Solidaridad, 2 in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, 5 in Benito Juárez, 6 in Lázaro Cárdenas and 2 in Puerto Morelos. Tulum is the only region without fires.
Combat has been prioritized on 2,000 hectares in Ichkabal and 800 hectares in La Charra, both sites located in the municipality of Bacalar.
Gabriel Medina, director of Protection and Forest Development of Sema, says he is thankful for the flyover support received by the Federal Police helicopter, charged by Captain Leonardo Euclides Soto Pérez, to help fight fires in that region.
Conafer says that already this year, they have seen a 380 percent increase in forest fire over the same period as last year.
