The raging bushfire over the last six days, which scorched the Northern Range leaving mountains bare, has moved east, threatening homes in the posh Lady Chancellor community and burning the hills of Maraval. Among those affected were business mogul Arthur Lok Jack whose employees were able to douse the flames near his home on Monday. In a telephone interview yesterday, Lok Jack said the fire came close to his Chancellor Hill home around 3.30 pm on Monday.
Lok Jack said the swift action by his gardeners and those who were at home saved the house. He added that his home, along with two others on the same compound, were all equipped with water pumps and fire hoses which were used to put out the fire. He said fire officials were in the area on Sunday night monitoring the blaze but failed to show on Monday afternoon when they were needed.
He described the fire as “significantly big” and one of the worst he had faced in his 40 years living there. The incident was highlighted on Papa Bois Conservation’s Facebook page. Nigel David, a member of the Fondes Amandes Reforestation project, St Ann’s, said the blaze started last Thursday after a villager lit a fire in his garden. It quickly spread, burning out the entire top of the pine-covered mountain, David recalled.
He said desperate members of the project, using firebeaters provided by the Forestry Division, and some homemade ones comprising juniper bush, tried to do what they could to prevent the fire, already in backyards, from spreading. “We were mainly trying to protect people’s houses. The fire was very close.” He said he was not scared since he has had many encounters with bushfires in his 14 years on the project. The last fire was in 1997.
David said the Fire Services came but could do precious little because officers could not get to the fire. “We began calling for the bambi buckets but they did not come until Friday evening, a day later. We got a whole runaround. “By this time the fire had reached all the way up to the Chancellor lookout and spread over into Simeon Valley. If we had gotten them earlier, the fire would have been contained.” He claimed the helicopter actually also made things worse.
“How the pilot was coming close, the helicopter started to help the fire spread.” He said members of the Fondes Amandes project also asked for water pumps which users could carry on their backs but did not get any. “We have two but one needs servicing,” he added. David said all smoke from that particular fire is gone now. “The place real breezy.”
Met Office: Weather normal
A climatologist from the Met Office said so far it appears as if all was going according to nature’s schedule, as far as the rainy and dry seasons were concerned. “The dry season is from January to May and the rainy from June to December, with May being transitional.” As for a repeat of the terrible 2010 drought that caused a prolonged dry season, she said they were not seeing any signs of that happening this year.