Fuego! Mexican Media Cover Border Fires
New America Media, News Digest, Elena Shore and Peter Micek, Posted: Oct 26, 2007
Editor's Note: Mexican media report that fires and smoke clouds are crossing into Tijuana and other border towns, forcing schools to close and residents to stay indoors as air contamination reaches dangerous levels.
Looking across the border at the fires raging throughout Southern California, newspapers in Mexico report that the fire dangers, smoke and contamination are not confined to the U.S. state.
Throughout the week, pollution has swept across the Mexican border city's skies, reports Tijuana’s Periódico Frontera. State ecological groups and city firefighters are urging residents to protect themselves from respiratory illnesses. The elderly, those with asthma and young children are especially advised to stay indoors, and schools in Tijuana were closed due to the poor air conditions.
Clouds of ash and smoke that had been blown to sea returned to Tijuana Friday, according to the Baja, Calif., newspaper La Crónica. Changing wind directions brought the bad air back to the city, said Fire Chief Marco Antonio Sánchez Navarro.
The inland mountain town of Tecate closed its schools early in the week, then reopened them, only to close them again Friday, La Crónica newspaper reports. Two fires, one on each side of the nearby U.S.-Mexico border, have roared back to life.
Air quality levels in Tijuana reached nearly twice the norm established by Mexican health officials as acceptable, according to the Mexico City newspaper El Universal. Over an eight-hour period, particulates were recorded at 250 PM per million, far above the usual 150 PM. The state's Secretary of the Environment Enrique Villegas Ibarra said changing wind directions, along with a reduction in the fires and the Santa Ana winds, could improve the air condition, but still warned residents to take precautions.
Some 34 emergency workers and six firefighting units from Tijuana crossed the border Tuesday night to join in efforts to quell the flames. Captain Marco Antonio Ojeda told Frontera that in 19 years on the job, he had never experienced a fire of this scale. The firefighters have since returned to Mexico to fight new fires there.
Twelve fires that started on the Mexican side of the border forced some 50 families to evacuate from their homes in Tijuana, the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada reports. The flames have been brought under control and the families are now being housed in the Crea sports facility.
On Wednesday, La Jornada reported conflicting views of whether the flames themselves had crossed into Mexico.
Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, head of the Environment and Natural Resources Department, told the newspaper that the blaze had extended into Mexico, where between Monday and Tuesday six fires on Mexico’s northern border were brought under control.
But State Agency of Civil Protection coordinator José Luis Rosas told the newspaper that the San Diego County fires had not crossed the border, and Mexican firefighters had contained the flames, which he said were also contained by the border fence and the U.S. Border Patrol.
This was confirmed by Mexican firefighters on the front lines, La Jornada reports. For example, the fire in Rancho La Puerta, located between Tijuana and Tecate, began on Mexican territory, they said.
State officials told La Jornada that the flames had left untold damage in urban and rural areas of Tijuana and Ensenada that would be evaluated “once the situation is under control.”
Meanwhile, migrants continue to cross illegally into the United States despite the increased danger the fires pose to their desert routes, according to an article by Spanish news service EFE published Tuesday in El Universal.
Some "coyotes," or smugglers, are probably trying to convince immigrants to cross now, saying the Border Patrol is distracted or that the smoke will hide them, said Mexican consulate spokesperson Alberto Lozano Merino in San Diego.
On Monday, two groups of six people were caught trying to migrate illegally, Merino said. One group suffered burns and one of their members went to intensive care.
Local newspapers reported that a group of about 50 immigrants was detained. However, Border Patrol spokesperson Wendy Lee had no comment about the incident.
On Thursday, Border Patrol agents found four charred bodies in what authorities called a "migrant camp" along the Mexican border.
Elena Shore and Peter Micek monitor Latino and Spanish-language media for New America Media.
Related Articles:
Ethnic Media Cover the Fires
Invisible Fire Victims in the Canyons
Fuego in San Diego: Very Little Information in Spanish
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