A forest fire of medium proportions was recorded in the vicinity of El Salto dam, just over a kilometer from the tourist town of Viñales, in the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio, the state media reported on Sunday.
The incident began at noon last Thursday in a wooded area dominated by plantations of pinus caribaea, a species typical of the forest area of Pinar del Río, Cuba’s second most reforested province after Guantánamo in the east, according to a report published in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde.
Drought, widespread throughout the territory, strongly affected the place and contributed to the spread of the fire due to the large amount of combustible material accumulated in the forest, as the head of the town’s forest fire brigade, Cirilo Seata, explained.
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The fire ―the number of hectares affected has not been specified― was completely put out this Saturday after the actions taken by joint forces of the Forest Rangers Corps (CGB), the Fire Department and the Ministry of Agriculture.
However, surveillance has continued to avoid a new outbreak and because the dry season lasts until the end of next May, while the causes that initiated the incident are being investigated.
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The Fire Rangers Corps reported 256 forest fires in Cuba in 2018, of which 219 took place during the most dangerous period (January-May), including 9 classified as large and very large. In Pinar del Río, 85 were registered during the past year, causing damage to more than 3,000 hectares of forests.
Negligence has been classified as the main cause of these events, as well as non-compliance with the measures established to prevent fires in forest areas, which on the island represent 31.23%, with a forest heritage of about 4.9 million hectares.
