Authorities are keeping a close watch on highly- elevated areas in Bayawan City after a series of wildfires razed portions of Mt. Pamari and Bao-Bao Peak.
Adrian Sedillo, executive director of the Provincial Disaster Risk-Reduction & Management Office, told the media they have coordinated with the proper agencies to closely monitor the areas that may be hit again by wildfires.
“Based on the initial reports, the PDRRMO is on standby and we are coordinating with other agencies to determine what kind of response is needed if the situation worsens,” Sedillo said.
Supt. Noel Nelson Ababon, Bureau of Fire Protection provincial fire marshal, said he is still awaiting an official report from the Bayawan City Fire Station regarding the wildfires.
He said he could not yet give any specific details regarding the wildfires in Bayawan City but he assured that BFP personnel remain deployed in Barangay Tayawan where the first incident of fire broke out.
Clint Chiefe, chair of Barangay Tayawan in Bayawan, confirmed to the media that the wildfires in Mt. Pamari and Bao-bao Peak were “sporadic in high elevations” where it’s not populated.
Bao-bao Peak, meanwhile, caught fire this weekend, and was reported to have been razed by Sunday evening, he added. The area is promoted as one of the City’s tourist destinations.
Chiefe said he immediately coordinated with the Bayawan local government unit for assistance.
Responding units, however, could not penetrate the areas where the sporadic fires were reported, due to inaccessible roads.
Drones deployed by the LGU on March 22 showed that the fires affected different areas in Pamari, a sub-village that is part forestial, Chiefe said.
For his part, Engr. Dan Caber of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical & Astronomical Administration in Negros Oriental said wildfires could be an indirect result of the ongoing El Niño phenomenon.
Caber also called on the public to be mindful of their activities and actions as a little spark, such as from a burning cigarette butt thrown on the ground, could ignite a fire. (Judy F. Partlow/PNA)
