Cebuano, pals face raps for causing fire

Photo of Mt. Kanlaon spewing ash and fiery rocks taken and posted by the Canlaon Mountain Tigers Search and Rescue on their Facebook page.

A Cebuano trekker may face charges after he and four companions were suspected to have triggered the grass fire on Mt. Kanlaon, an active volcano located on Negros Island.

Negros Occidental Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Andres Untal declined to name the Cebuano and his companions who went up to Mount Kanlaon without any permit during the Holy Week.

The four others, including the guide, were from La Carlota City, Negros Occidental. The five were identified based on a Facebook post, said Untal.

The group was suspected to have caused the fire that destroyed 100 hectares of grassland near the summit.

Adjacent to it was another grass fire caused by the fiery rocks and incandescent materials spewed by Mount Kanlaon during an explosion last Tuesday evening.
Untal said they planned to file charges for trekking without a permit against the five.

Entry into the volcano’s four-km radius Permanent Danger Zone has been prohibited since Nov. 24 when the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised Alert Level 1 on Mount Kanlaon following its phreatic explosion.

In Cebu, environment officials said there were no signs of ashes and smoke from Mt. Kanlaon that reached the province.

Engr. Cindylyn Pepito, chief of the regional Environmental Management Board’s (EMB) ambient air quality division, said an Environmental Beta Attenuation

Monitor (E-BAM) equipment was set up at the rooftop of Balamban town hall yesterday in order to monitor Mt. Kanlaon.