WESTERN BUREAU – Firefighters yesterday continued their exhausting battle to control spreading bush fires that have already inflicted millions of dollars worth of damage to several farm communities in St Elizabeth and forced homeowners to flee.

“This fire is hard to put out,” a fireman from the Junction Fire Department told the Observer late Thursday evening. “We have been trying to do so for days. I have been to a lot of fires, but this is the worst one for me.”

Last night, Dean Peart, the land and environment minister, said the Government had approved financial assistance for farmers who have lost crops to the blaze.

“We have released a million dollars to assist the farmers,” Peart said on radio after visiting the affected areas.

Last night, Government officials put the damage done so far at $10 million and said that at least 1,000 acres of crops have been destroyed.

In addition to the firefighters, four water trucks from the National Water Commission’s Rapid Response Unit, another water truck from the Alpart Bauxite Company, as well as residents, fought the fires.

Wind and dry conditions stoked the fires that actually started 11 days ago in the Tryall community and later spread to the districts of Lovers Leap, Ballards Valley, Yardley Chase and Woodside. Up to yesterday, the communities of Bull Savannah and Mitcham were threatened, as the flames continued to spread mainly in the hilly sections of the communities.

The terrain made the firefighters’ task even more difficult, deputy senior superintendent in charge of the St Elizabeth Fire Department Dave McLaughlin told the Observer.

“This fire is a bit nagging,” McLaughlin said. “It might look easy to the layman, but it is not easy to control.”

Yesterday, residents said that the fires were spawned from a single fire lit by some young men on a beach trip at Woodside on Ash Wednesday. Authorities were unable to confirm that story. However, residents told the Observer that they have been fighting the fire around the clock since Ash Wednesday.

“I haven’t slept since last week Friday night because I have been helping the other residents to control the fire,” Etta Broomfiled, a 56 year-old farmer, said.

She added that she had lost 11 goats, 15 acres of guinea grass and several acres of grown escallion.

Several other farmers complained that they had suffered thousands of dollars in losses.

Deputy parish manager for the Rural Agricultural Development Agency (RADA) Neville Morgan told the Observer yesterday that a team from his department has been assessing the damage wrought by the fire.

Up to Monday, he said, a preliminary report indicated that 175 hectares of crops, including guinea grass – used as mulch for crops – were destroyed.

“The crops destroyed are mainly tomatoes, watermelons, sweet peppers and escallion”, he added.

Meanwhile, Jamaica Labour Party caretaker for South West St Elizabeth, Christopher Tufton, urged the ministers of water and local government to seek the assistance of the Jamaica Defence Force in an attempt to control the fires.

The JLP caretaker also appealed to the relevant authorities to address the chronic water shortage that exists in the parish.