Grass Fires Raze Mt. Asog

IRIGA CITY (18 February) - ABOUT 400-HECTARES of grass-lands and some forested areas in the territorial area of six barangays in Mt. Asog were razed by spreading grass-fires about 2:00 P.M. of 17 February, the City Mayor's Office in this locality reported today.

It was not certain how the grass fires started, but the PAGASA warned over radio-broadcast that the increasing warm weather in Cam. Sur province brought by the El Niño dry-spell has brought risk to small fires commonly done by farmers to clear fields.

Until midnight of 17 February, Iriga City Mayor Madelaine Alfelor-Gazmen kept watch at the upland villages of Iriga City and directed fire trucks to spray water on a buffer-zone, to prevent the fires from spreading to populated areas.

She also appealed to fire-departments in nearby Iriga City towns to help in putting-out the wild fire that spread in Mt. Asog until evening of Wednesday.

Experts in forest fires are expected to be sent today by the Office of the Civil Defense from Camp Simeon Ola, Legazpi City to assess the spread of grass-fires in Mt. Asog.

Meanwhile, the Naga City Fire Protection Office also reported having subdued similar grass-fires on Wednesday afternoon at a rice field in Sitio Queborac, Bagumbayan Sur in this City.

Naga Fire Marshall Achilles Santiago reported that residents helped linked water hoses to fire-trucks as the grass fire threatened residential houses near the rice-fields.

The Naga Fire Marshall warned local residents not to burn garbage along with rice-straws at nearby rice-fields, particularly during prevailing hot afternoons. (SONNY SALES)