Very early in the morning and apparently caused by the high temperatures recorded throughout Táchira State in the Venezuelan Andes, a forest fire occurred in the El Uvito and La Laguna sectors, located between the Michelena and Lobatera municipalities.
Luz Dary Depablos / correspondent lapatilla.com
About five homes and a truck trailer, which was parked in the backyard of one of these, were also hit by the flames.
The mayor of the municipality of Michelena, Jhon Jairo Méndez, showed up in the affected rural areas, where a thick layer of smoke covered part of the townships.
Given the progress of the fire, Méndez begged for help through social networks, since the mayor’s office does not have a tanker truck to attend to this type of emergency, since the previous Chavista administration left the vehicle fleet completely dismantled, and with the few resources that perceived by the municipality, it has not yet been able to recover this unit.
At least 50 families in these communities were left without water, because the flames burned the hose system that supplied the service.
It should be noted that the Lobatera and Michelena municipalities do not have a Fire Department and the Civil Protection headquarters do not have operational tanker trucks, not even to families affected by the water supply rationing caused by the drought.
Furthermore, Yeison Mena, a 33-year-old worker at the Michelena Slaughterhouse, was run over by a motorcycle when he was volunteering to put out the fire, due to the lack of firefighters in the affected municipalities. He unfortunately suffered a fracture of the tibia and fibula, and he was rushed to a healthcare center.
Mayor Méndez expressed his concern, because the few resources he receives have not been enough to repair the tanker truck and he does not have the necessary equipment to deal with a larger emergency. Fortunately, people from the municipality made their private tanker trucks available free of charge to put out the fire.
On the other hand, the director of Civil Protection, Yesnardo Canal, reported that the preventive bodies throughout the metropolitan axis of this Andean state, with an impact on the municipalities of Cárdenas, Andrés Bello, Torbes, Guásimos, Córdoba, San Cristóbal and, most recent, Lobatera, they have attended a forest fire and 56 vegetation fires.
These figures are a historic record, as they exceed the incidence in the state by 120%. Only during the last week there were 15 vegetation fires.