INCREASE IN BUSH FIRES

CCNTV6

There has been an increase in bush fires since the pandemic as firefighters struggle to combat the number of fires which have displaced wildlife and destroyed agriculture and infrastructure.  Acting Sub Officer from the  Fire Prevention Central Department Jude Rogers revealed that the country recorded a total of two thousand six hundred and twenty five bush fires post pandemic with the majority taking place in March 2023.

Transcript

00:00Coming out of the pandemic there has been an increase in bushfires across the

00:04country. That's according to acting fire sub officer Jude Rogers. Officer Rogers

00:09said during the pandemic there was a reduction in bushfires as most people

00:14were at home. In 2022, 1,547 bushfires were recorded with an increase to 2,625

00:24in 2023. February to May period was identified as having the highest number

00:29of bushfires. In March of 2022 there were 262 bushfires recorded with the

00:36number spiking to over 800 in 2023. Rogers said fires are all about

00:42detection and an early fire detection is imperative to mitigate potential hazards

00:47from happening. Pre-pandemic figures were hovering just around between 2,000 to

00:533,000 bushfires annually with the peak periods being February, March, April and

01:00May of any given year which is normally driest and the hottest periods of time

01:04in Trinidad and Tobago. After the pandemic we would have seen those

01:08figures ramp back up to those levels again. During the pandemic the figures

01:12would have dropped to under 1,500 bushfires annually. Now we're back up to

01:17what we consider pre-pandemic times. We're back up to 3,000 bushfires

01:22annually. The acting fire sub warns the public that lighting of illegal outdoor

01:28fires for the purpose of clearing land or disposing of rubbish during the dry

01:32season without a permit is illegal and a person can face a possible $20,000 fine

01:38and six months in jail under the Summary Offenses Act. So to avoid falling on the

01:44wrong side of the law, Rogers is encouraging citizens to do the right

01:48thing and apply for a permit. According to Rogers, the steps are easy as one, two,

01:54three. The fire service regulates that the issuance of the permit and it's done

01:59through our fire guardians who are brought on board onto the system being

02:04that they are brought into various stations for a contract period of the

02:091st of December of 2024 to the 30th of June. They are the ones that are charged

02:14with the responsibility of going out into the communities when you apply for

02:17when you visit the station you must apply for a permit. You have a specific

02:22piece of land that you'd like to burn, you have a particular area that you

02:25would want to declare, you come and you apply for the permit and they would go

02:30out and visit. They would look at the risk involved and prescribe measures to

02:34do so safely. Then the permit is issued and you follow the permits instructions

02:40to the T and that is normally restricted to a specific time of day in the

02:45afternoon period between 5 and let's say 7 you're allowed to burn certain

02:50amounts. Other precautionary measures one can take to protect their home and

02:53property are if you have trees that border your property you want to trim

02:58those trees so that they are not in close proximity to your the eve of your

03:02property or any wooden member of your property and most of our homes still

03:07have wooden roofs and with a wooden roof you would have a fire that can ensue

03:11because you're in close proximity to the vegetation. So what we suggest is to cut

03:16a fire trace around the borders of your property. Your fence line you should go

03:205 to 15 feet removing the topsoil vegetation that is above the topsoil

03:26thus relieving no fuel for the fire to burn. So if a fire were to ensue via

03:31bushfire and it comes up to that point there is no vegetation therefore the

03:35fire cannot continue towards your property.

03:37Charla Kesto, TV6 News.

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