Forest fire forces closure of Benguet highway

March 15, 2024 | 6:09pm

BAGUIO CITY — The Atok Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) ordered the closure of the Halsema highway (Baguio-Bontoc road), specifically in Kilometer 46, Barangay Paoay due to the raging forest fire in the area on Friday morning.

“The road is temporarily not passable due to impending threats this can cause,” it explained in its  public advisory earlier Friday.

This resulted in long motorist queues on both northbound and southbound as long as 15 kilometers along the highway, the main artery from Mt. Province and Benguet to Baguio City.

Personnel of the Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP) Atok and neighboring towns together with volunteers and villagers struggled to suppress the fire.

The cause of the fire and the time it started is yet to be determined.

Before 2 p.m., however,  authorities allowed motorists to pass while firefighters managed to contain the further spread of the forest fire.

Last March 6, a forest fire hit Barangay Paoay where some houses were even damaged, though no one was hurt.

Forest fires also hit other parts of the barangay during the first week of this month.