ORMOC CITY – The mayor of Salcedo town, Eastern Samar province is pleading for help to fight a fire in the town’s forests.
Mayor Melchor Mergal asked all “able bodied men” of the town to prepare themselves to help local firefighters in battling the blaze.
The fire started at the forest of Naparaan village around 7 a.m. on Tuesday (April 14) and was still raging as of 5 p.m.
Senior Fire Officer 1 Pablito Nadera, the acting fire marshal, said the wildfire is some 3 km from the residential area of the village.
Nadera said the local firefighting unit had already sent out an alarm to the Eastern Samar Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) to call for help but two more towns—Giparlos and MacArthur—were also hit by the fire.
At least two fire trucks from the BFP in Guiuan town had been deployed and stationed in front of the Eastern Samar State University Salcedo campus to stand by in case the fire spread to the residential area.