Through his profile on the social network X, the president thanked the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction for the work, which he described as great.
In addition, the bravery and effort of the brigade members, “silent heroes who for months have battled the fire.”
Let’s not let our guard down, we are now preparing for the rainy season, stressed the head of state, in reference to the rainfall that began at the beginning of this month with notable impacts already in different regions.
Regarding the incidents (2,634 attended until the last closure), specialists previously pointed out that the damage caused by the flames will take years to recover.
The forestry technician of the Directorate of Forestry and Wildlife Management of the National Council of Protected Areas (Conap) David Contreras exemplified that what happened at the Agua volcano is irreparable in the forest and in the fauna.
The fire for 52 days until last April in that colossus (inactive) affected 600 hectares, which – according to the expert – is 20 times more than what was consumed by the last largest fire recorded in that area in 2021.
It extinguished an important forest cover of cloud forest, where there were pine, oak, cypress and avocado, which is food for the quetzal, he described.
Contreras explained that this is a water recharge area that will decrease over the years, due to the deterioration caused by the flames.
On the other hand, in the Laguna del Tigre National Park in the eastern department of Petén, after more than 60 days the fires impacted over 465 square kilometers of forest area.
We saw dozens of dead animals, trapped by the fire, and the recovery of the forest will take decades, said Conap forest ranger Eduard Oliva.
The fauna and flora of the park, which includes 16 ecosystems and more than 250 bodies of water, were seriously affected, he noted.
Analysts recalled that the lack of approval of a state of calamity by the Guatemalan Congress made the response to the emergency difficult.
jcm/znc
