Experts assess impact of large-scale fire in Mayarí, Holguín
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With more than 3,600 hectares of pine forests, grasslands and coffee trees affected so far, the large-scale fire in Pinares de Mayarí, Holguín, has been active for more than ten days.
Experts from the provincial delegation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (Citma) are following the evolution of the event for the environmental evaluation, according to the Twitter account of the Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya.
Preliminary information provided by the local media details that damage is reported to endangered, critically endangered or vulnerable plants. In addition, the fire reached areas of the Mensura-Piloto National Park, declared a protected area since 2008 due to its diversity of flora and fauna.
Scientific Observatory, a specialized Cuban TV program, shared on social networks that the Pinar jasmine (Euphorbia podocarpirolia), native to the area and considered the flower of Holguín, is at risk.
It also worries the impact on the La Sabina trail, where is found a local pine species of high biological value. In the case of the emblematic Poza de Rafael, the Holguín journalist Emilio Rodríguez Pupo reported in his Facebook profile that the fire could not enter this natural space.
Forces of the Ranger Corps remained in the ecological station, which cut off the path of the flames. In other places this was not the case, and the flames rolled through Vigindy and Pinarito until reaching areas of the municipalities of Mella and San Luis. The fight continues and new forces have joined, describes the journalist, who has followed this natural disaster minute by minute.
Specimens of fauna such as mollusks and insects unable to escape have also been affected.
Once the fire is controlled, specialists from the Holguín Environmental Research and Services Center, the Botanical Garden and other Citma entities will fully assess the environmental damage.
On Saturday, February 18 were identified the first four sources of the fire, which even when they began to fight vigorously from the outset, managed to spread due to the strong winds and the abundance of cubensis pine plantations, considered combustible material. (Source: Granma)
