Grass fire razes 24 hectares of grassland in Bacolod City

A grass fire spread quickly in Bacolod City on Tuesday, which further intensified the hot weather in the area.

In Kuya Kim's report on "24 Oras," Thursday, Bacolod City Fire Station City Fire Marshal FCINSP Stephen Jardeleza said they immediately responded when they received the call of grass fire. 

"Nagsagawa po tayo ng pagdepensa doon sa mga populated area. Meron pong mga natural fire breaks na po tayo na na-utilize," he said.

"Ekta-ektarya po kasi 'yung covered ng grassland, 'di rin po natin madiretsong maapula. Na-fireout po natin around past 9 a.m."

But just more than seven hours later, the fire station received another fire incident report near the occurrence of the earlier fire.

"May tawag po sa amin separate location, but na-realize po natin na parang kadugtong lang din nung umagang sunog. Possibly meron pong natirang mga ember. Na-fire out po natin around 8:05 ng gabi," Jardeleza said.

The risk of grass fires occurring increases when the weather is hot because the grasses and other plants dry out, which causes the fire to spread more easily. 

But there are many possible reasons why grass fires start, including the burning of garbage and throwing cigarette butts.

The grass fires that broke out in Bacolod are the results of different human activities," Jardaleza said.

"Meron po silang mga activities doon sa loob, nagtatapon ng sigarilyo, nagluluto, nagsasaing po, meron pong nagtutunaw ng goma. Basically result ng human activities at kapabayaan ng tao," he said.

Just last month, there were 205 fire incidents recorded in Bacolod. A total of 130 of them were grass fires.

To prevent more incidents of fire, the Bureau of Fire Protection performed an activity called controlled or prescribed burning.

"Ginagawa po nating manageable 'yung mga blocks ng grass at paunti-unti po natin sinusunog 'yun. Kasama na rin po 'yun sa mga strategy para through and through, maubos po siya at 'di na tayo pabalik-balik," Jardaleza said.

—Carby Basina/MGP, GMA Integrated News