José María Morelos, Q.R. — A power outage and highway closure were the result of the latest wild fire to hit the municipality. A fire that started Sunday emitted thick smoke that eventually caused the closure of a highway.
The Sunday fire was the result of a previous fire that had not been fully extinguished. The fire scorched land along highway 184 in José María Morelos around noon Sunday.
The intense heat, high flames and poor visibility forced the National Guard Highways Division to close the road Sunday afternoon. A firetruck with two men attempted to hose both sides of the burning highway in an attempt to finally put out the fire.
On Monday morning, some residents woke up to no electricity. The Sunday afternoon blaze burned a set of CFE wires that ran along the highway. Personnel from the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) were on site and able to restore only low voltage power after nearly two hours.
While most homes had some power, town traffic lights were non-functional with the low voltage. Internet services were also interrupted for a second time this week due to the wildfire.
Asunción Núñez Medrano, the Director of Municipal Civil Protection of José María Morelos, said that although the fire was controlled, it continues to burn on part of the highway, adding there are still electrical issues due to the fire.
“When there are burns below the wiring logically it has an impact on the energy supply. Just this morning the power went out two or three times,” he said.
According to Núñez Medrano, they are currently recording more fires than they have equipment to battle, averaging three fires a day.
