Efforts to combat blazing fire on Mount Kilimanjaro going on

Fire on Mount Kilimanjaro on the way to be quelled

Official reports from the park management say fire which erupted on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in the first week of September, 2023 has been contained by ninety percent.

The Tanzania National Park’s Assistant Commissioner of Conservation, Angela Nyaki, who is in charge at Kilimanjaro National Park, said the remaining section of the blazing flames will soon be taken care of.

More than 135 personnel had been dispatched onto the mountain to contain the fire outbreaks at the highest peak on the African continent.

“Villagers have been assisting us in the exercise,” said Commissioner Nyaki, adding at least 17 acres of vegetation have been destroyed.

Until now it is still not known what or who was the cause of the fire, which is reported to raze around the Rombo escarpments on the mountain.

The statement, which came from Tanzania National Parks shortly after the outbreak, says more forces were sent up the mountain to assist in the fire-quelling exercise.

The fire on Mount Kilimanjaro reportedly started at the Indonet Rongai parts of the National Park which falls on the Rombo District side.

The Rombo District of Kilimanjaro is the precinct where Tanzania borders Kenya along the Tarakea-Oloitokitok territorial boundary.

Around this time last year in October 2022, to be precise, fire broke on the mountain and razed on for more than a month.

More than 34.2 Square Kilometers of Vegetation on Kilimanjaro were destroyed during the October 2022 incident.

After the previous outbreak of 2022 the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) claimed to be already taking more precautions against future occurrences…sort of.

Fire problems on Kilimanjaro had already been dealt with in the past and according to experts’ areas that previously experienced fire outbreaks, for some reason no longer suffer such occurrences.

There have also been a series of fire episodes on the mountain, earlier on in 2022 occurring in Udetu and Samanga parts, again on the Rombo escarpments.

The October 2022 flames also razed River Karanga, Umbwe and Baranko areas, before spreading to Mandara, Kasoko near the Crater on the Marangu route sections.