Panchthar, 5 April: Villagers living near the forest were in trouble after a forest fire broke out in the Sawasera forest on the banks of the Tamor River on Wednesday. The villagers were worried that if the fire suddenly broke out, there would be no way to save their thatched houses and sheds.
It has been six months since there has been any rain in this area, which is severely affected by drought. Due to the lack of rain, all the leaves and twigs have dried up. On top of that, the wind was blowing very hard. It didn’t take long for the fire that started on Wednesday to reach the village. The fire that started in Sawasera reached Tangtange and Leketam forests in Yasok, Kummayak Rural Municipality-1, on Friday.
There was no fire line built to prevent the fire from reaching the village. There was not enough water to extinguish the fire in the drought-affected village. Kamal Shrestha of Kaflepani, who is also an employee of Kummayak Rural Municipality, was sitting on the roof of his neighbor Bir Bahadur Lawati’s house with a bucket full of water on Friday. The house was covered in smoke from the fire. The house, which had a thatched roof, was too hot to save if the wind blew sparks into it, so he sat on the roof carrying water for about two hours.
“The fire had already reached the forest about 50 meters below the house. There was also a bamboo grove there. When a fire breaks out, bamboo leaves fly in the wind. I sat on the roof with a bucket of water in case the burning leaves and sparks would reach the thatched roof,” he said. “As soon as the sparks of the fire reached, we tried to extinguish them by splashing the bucket with water.”
Shrestha had been working to extinguish the fire that had come close to his house by tearing down his neighbor’s roof, while other villagers had been working to extinguish the fire. Like him, other people who had gone to extinguish the fire were sitting on the roofs of thatched houses with water. Shrestha says that about 15 houses were saved by tearing down their roofs in this way.
Fires have broken out in various forests in Kummayak Rural Municipality-1 Yasok, Ward No. 3 Ranigaun, Ward No. 4 Ranigaun and Ward No. 5 Syabarumba, which have been severely affected by the drought. The forest fires have spread to nearby settlements in a short time due to strong winds.
Although the federal, provincial and local governments have launched various programs to install zinc sheets in the homes of citizens, the zinc sheets have not yet reached all homes. Shrestha informed that the kitchen of the house where Ghanendra Darji, a local tailor, was living, was burnt down when he entered the forest fire-hit village today.
When the fire entered the settlement, the houses, barns, food grains, clothes, and livestock of Dirgha Bahadur Khatri, Devendra Rai, Yam Kumar Chamling, Bishnu Rai, Pahalman Karki, Devendra Karki, and Dik Bahadur Karki of Khalde in the same ward were burnt down.
Pratima Sambahamphe, 26, died in a forest fire in Tamrakhu forest of Ward No. 3 of Kummayak Rural Municipality on Thursday. On Thursday afternoon, Pratima was accompanied by Sapana Sambahamphe, 28, Shivana Sambahamphe, 11, and Nirmaya Sambahamphe, 60, who had gone to the forest to cut grass.
The District Police Office, Panchthar, has stated that they were caught in flames while running away from the fire. The injured Sapana, Shivana and Nirmaya have been treated at the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan and have been taken to Kirtipur Jalan Hospital for further treatment today, informed Ward Chairman of Kummayak-3, Baburam Karki.
