Army troops fight Mt. Apo fire

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Philippine Army soldiers on Saturday climbed Mt. Apo to help volunteers and firemen put out the fire that has been burning sections of the country’s highest peak for more than a week now.

The blaze, which started on March 26, had engulfed more than 300 hectares of forest and grassland as of Sunday.

Authorities said some campers may have unwittingly triggered it when they failed to put off fire they used for cooking when they left a camping ground along the Kapatagan trail in Digos City. The fire earlier spread to the North Cotabato side of Mt. Apo, but this was contained after volunteers built fire lines.

The blaze, however, continues in the Davao del Sur side of the mountain.

Maj. Ezra Balagtey, acting spokesperson of the Philippine Army’s Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom), said a company size unit, composed of 112 soldiers from the 10th Infantry Division, arrived in Kapatagan town in Davao del Sur province early morning Saturday and started scaling the mountain. They were expected to reach areas hit by the fire later that day and assist volunteers there.

The soldiers were sent to Mt. Apo a day after Maj. Gen. Leonardo Guerrero, commander of Eastmincom, alerted all disaster response units to prepare for possible deployment to Mt. Apo to help contain the fire.

Balagtey said the Philippine Air Force has been using a helicopter, rigged with a large bucket, to scoop water from a lake to douse the fire. It is also used to carry sacks of crushed ice that are dropped into affected areas in an attempt to stop the blaze from spreading.

Balagtey said another helicopter is used to ferry volunteers and supplies.

The Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council has appealed for donations of food and water for volunteers.

Harry Camoro, spokesperson of Incident Management Team in Davao del Sur, said  they also needed more volunteers to replace those assigned in the area earlier.

The drop-off areas for donations are the Incident Command Post in Barangay Kapatagan in Digos, Davao del Sur; Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) office in Digos City; and DENR regional office in Lanang, Davao City.

Mt. Apo has an elevation of 2,954 meters above sea level, making it the highest peak in the country. It was declared a natural park  in 2004.

Sections of the mountain belong to the provinces of Davao del Sur and North Cotabato.