MADRID, Spain.- The fire of great proportions untied on February 18 in the wooded area of Pinares de Mayarí, in the province of Holguín, it was practically extinct.
After 15 days without firefighters and forest rangers being able to control it, this Sunday “the danger of the fire that threatened to spread to the territory of Santiago de Cuba was eliminated.”
“After the four sources of the incident were eliminated with the possibility of penetrating Santiago territory through areas of the Mella and San Luis municipalities, the head of all the forces and means and the Provincial Defense Council, considered the task that they described as difficult to be completed. due to the irregularity of the terrain, the dispersion of the lights and the speed of the winds,” he told Rebel Radio Gustavo Álvarez Matos, head of the Civil Defense in said area.
The information indicates that about a hundred people who had been evacuated from shelters and the homes of relatives or friends returned to their homes due to the danger of the cloud of smoke emanating from the fire, which could affect the respiratory system.
According to preliminary data, the fire damaged some 5,350 hectares of forest which, according to specialists cited by GranmaThey will take decades to recover.
“Estimates indicate significant damage to pine and eucalyptus forests, pastures, coffee plantations, and other types of vegetation, which highly likely include endangered, critically endangered, or endangered plants. vulnerable”, pointed out the official media.
The recovery of deforested areas requires at least 20 to 40 years, and fire not only causes the direct death of animals and plants, it also causes indirect effects, such as stress, habitat destruction and food sources, and bring with them the disappearance or displacement of not a few species, highlighted René Capote López, Ph.D. in Biological Sciences.
According to figures from the Cuban Ranger Corps, so far in 2023 there have been 277 forest fires in the country, only seven less than those that occurred in 2023.
Last year’s fires, mostly caused by “negligent actions”, damaged 1,876 hectares of forest.
