BELIZE CITY, Mon. June 21, 2021– Over the weekend, a joint team from the Geology and Petroleum Department and the Forest Department took the 4-hour trek up to the Sleeping Giant mountain range to investigate the source of the mysterious smoke plumes emanating from the area.

What government officials determined on Saturday is that the source of the smoke is smoldering detritus — basically burning leaves and debris possibly lit by a lightning strike earlier this month.

“The area is located on top of a ridge comprised of Paleozoic non-volcanic basement rocks, and is covered by a thick mat of detritus or decaying organic matter and dead trees which are fueling the continuous slow-burning or smoldering. At the time of the visit, the area affected was approximately 100 meters long and 40 meters wide,” a release from the Government of Belize stated.

During an interview, Chief Forest Officer, Wilbur Sabido, said, “Basically the team from the Geology Department was able to confirm that it was a situation that did not have anything to do with anything geothermal, anything seismic, nothing in terms of a meteor strike, nothing to do with anything volcanic, and my team was able to confirm that they were areas that were smoldering as a result of fire, and the fire, we have narrowed down, could only be caused by a lightning strike.”

Sabido said that various tests were done by Ministry officials to rule out the speculations that were abounding on social media.

He said that the teams determined that the smoke has now turned into small patches of fire, which they are actively monitoring to see if it will continue to move uphill. In the short term, if the situation becomes more critical, the Forest Department will advise their Ministry to take contingency measures to stop the spread of the fire. He suggested that helicopters could be used to douse the area where the fire is located to avoid any potential spread of the flames.

“For us, it was a very unusual situation that we wanted to be certain about, so we took every precaution that we needed to take. That’s the reason we limited the number of people who would go into the area — just out of an abundance of caution, so we were able to, as I mentioned, do a very good assessment of the area and confirm without a doubt that it is an actual fire, deep-burning, fire that was started by lightning.” Sabido explained.
The government thanked the residents of the area who served as guides and helped to make the arduous trek to the not-so-mysterious smoke source possible.