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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2007 
Mexico Responds to California Fires
 Frontera NorteSur
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| | Burnt out hills previously covered with thick chaparral brush after strong winds pushed the Harris Fire to more than 75,000 acres near the US-Mexico border south of Portrero, California. Some rare types of trees, butterflies and other wildlife could lose their struggle for survival after this month's southern California fires, which ravaged one of the most unique, biodiverse areas in the world, scientists say. (AFP/Getty Images/David McNew) |
Straddling the US border, sections of Mexico's Baja California state were singed by the raging fires that erupted across the border in Southern California in recent days. Blanketing the border with bad air conditions, smoke and haze from the fires prompted Mexican authorities to close schools in Tijuana, Tecate, Ensenada and Playas de Rosarito early this week. Hundreds of thousands of Mexican students were left without classes until further notice.
According to Juan Elvira Quesada, chief of the federal Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) several dozen acres of Mexican land were burned by border-jumping blazes. Some of the flames threatened areas well-known as crossing corridors for undocumented workers. Four cabins at Rancho La Puerta, a popular tourist destination near Tecate, were burned in a fire. The emergency conditions forced the evacuation of at least 100 families in Ensenada, 60 households in Tecate and several dozen more people in Tijuana. Except for one report of a child suffering burns in Tijuana, the casualty list from fires in Mexico was initially blank.
Reminiscent of their deployment during the 2003 San Diego area fires, Mexican firefighters and fire control experts were dispatched to the United States to help bring the flames under control. Sixty firefighters from Tijuana and Tecate crossed the border October 21 to assist in fire suppression work on the US side, but were withdrawn the next day after they were suddenly needed to combat fires beginning to spread into Mexico. Semarnat head Elvira said that a separate group of 32 Mexican fire control experts were sent to California, with another 100 on stand-by in Mexican territory.
As the fires picked up in strength, concern was expressed by both Mexican and US authorities that immigrant smugglers, or "coyotes," would see the disaster as a distraction to aid them in crossing undocumented migrants across the border. California National Guard units which had been assigned to border patrol duty were ordered north for fire control duty.
Alberto Lozano Merino, spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in San Diego, said that two groups of migrants were detained October 22 attempting to cross the border in the midst of the fires. According to Lozano, one migrant suffered second degree burns and several others registered light burns. A group of 50 migrants reportedly surrendered to US Border Patrol agents October 21, but agency spokesperson Wendy Lee said she could not confirm the incident.
"The detentions are constant. Yes, there are groups of between five and ten people that try to cross," Lee said. "It's important to publicize the alerts about the big dangers that they expose themselves to, which are normally significant but much greater now because of the fires."
Sources: Frontera, October 22 and 23, 2007. Articles by German Ramos, Laura Duran, Luis Adolfo San, Junuen Lugo, and the Associated Press news agency. El Universal/EFE/AP, October 23, 2007. La Jornada/ Notimex/AFP, October 22 and 23, 2007. El Diario de Juarez, October 23, 2007.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
FNS can be found at http://frontera.nmsu.edu/ |
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