DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania — More than 300
people have been mobilized to tackle a blaze on the slopes of Tanzania’s famous
Mount Kilimanjaro, local officials said on Saturday, with police and local
people helping firefighters.
اضافة اعلان
The fire was burning near the camp Karanga site used
by climbers ascending the mountain, at about 4,000m altitude on the south side
of mountain.
Mount Kilimanjaro, situated in the northeast of the
country, is Africa’s highest summit at 5,895m (19,340 feet).
Officials have not yet established how the fire
started, but it comes exactly two years after another blaze, which raged for a
week in October 2020 across 95 square kilometers (37 square miles).
No one was killed in that fire, and on Saturday
officials said that the current blaze did not threaten any of the tourists on
the mountain. Kilimanjaro is popular with both trekkers and mountain climbers.
The fire started on Friday evening and was spread by
strong winds during the night, said regional officials. They could not yet say
how much ground it covered.
A plane transporting local officials and leading
members of the Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) for a visit to
evaluate the situation was unable to land on Saturday.
“Large clouds and the smoke prevented us from
reaching the fire zone,” the prefect of Kilimanjaro, Nurdin Babu, told
journalists. “We will try again when the situation improves.”
The chief of the region’s police, Yahaya Mdogo, said
that they were focusing on getting the fire under control and could not yet say
how big it was or what impact it was having on the population. But videos
posted on social media appeared to show the flames devouring vegetation and
giving off thick clouds of grey smoke.
Police,
firefighters, students from the local university, and even staff from tour
operators were working hard to bring the blaze under control, TANAPA said in a
brief statement.
Mount Kilimanjaro, with its snow-capped peak, is
known around the world. The forests surrounding it form part of a national
park, and Kilimanjaro National Parks is registered by
UNESCO as a World
Heritage site, in part because many endangered species live there.
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