‘All brush fires now extinguished’

Two members of the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services team walk past the destruction left by the brush fire on Kannat Tabla hill yesterday. DFEMS said the fire, which started in Evergreen below Mt. Tapochau on Monday, wiped out 120 acres of vegetation. (DEREK GERSONDE)

After wrestling with outbreaks of brush fires the past several days, the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services announced early last night that all wildland fires have been extinguished.

“As of 6pm (Tuesday night) all wildland fires were extinguished,” said DFEMS spokesperson Derek Gersonde in a phone interview with Saipan Tribune last night.

One of the bigger brush fires that have been controlled was the one that broke out in Papago below Mt. Tapochao on Monday. Before being extinguished, it spread to Kannat Tabla earlier Tuesday and destroyed a total of 120 acres of vegetation.

Gersonde said no house was burned and no one was reported injured.

DFEMS said that at 10:40pm Monday night, the fire’s head below Mt. Tapochao continued to move southwest and spread toward Kannat Tabla.

The fire’s tail continued eastward, backing up toward Mt. Tapochau.

DFEMS fielded a team Monday night on Mt. Tapochao, another team in Kannat Tabla by Bishop Estate, and another in Papago.

DFEMS earlier said they can’t get an accurate rate of the spread of the fire due to the distance and lack of light illumination.

Because of the fire’s approach to the residential area in Kannat Tabla and Papago Monday and early Tuesday, DFEMS stationed their teams in the tree locations to monitor the fire’s movement.

DFEMS also contacted the Commonwealth Ports Authority Airport Rescue Fire Fighting to have their tankers on standby, and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to turn on the water feeding hydrants in Papago, Kannat Tabla, and Capital Hill to re-supply the fire trucks.

DFEMS also called private water delivery companies and alerted them about possibly being activated later Monday night or Tuesday morning

The water companies have loaded their tankers with over 10,000 gallons of water in preparation.

Three brush fires occurred in different spots on Saipan over the weekend, destroying acres of vegetation, while another brush fire broke out on Rota last Sunday. No one was reported injured in all those fires. 

Last Thursday, the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Guam issued a notice that the drought in the CNMI is expected to worsen in the next couple of weeks.

Following the issuance of the notice and with the expectation of moderate to occasionally strong trade winds over most of Micronesia in the next couple of months, the Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management is advising CNMI residents to refrain from outdoor burning activities to avoid wildfires and endanger surrounding life and property.

Last Tuesday midnight, a fire engulfed a two-story house in Chalan Kanoa as the brush fire that broke out a day before (Monday) was still spreading at Wireless Ridge that day (Tuesday).

Last March 12, three grass fires destroyed a total of over an acre of vegetation near Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School in San Roque and at the Tanapag Cemetery.

A brush fire swept through 4.5 acres of vegetation in Papago last March 7. Two weeks before that, multiple brush fires occurred on Tinian and Rota.

Gersonde reminded the public that the best prevention against wildland fires is not burning anything on the grasslands as they are easily ignitable because of the dry season.