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Tonight, in the second part of our story, we'll take a more circumspect approach - as we study the fire phenomenon, particularly as it affected some upscale resorts a few weeks ago.

Jules Vasquez Reporting
We begin our story at the place called Skyline one of the highest points in the Pine ridge which - with the widespread fires - looks almost as if it is in the clouds:….

Much of the Pine Ridge is shrouded in smoke - and indeed about a third of the forest has already burnt or is burning. These are the men who watch it - a crew of 30 foresters who are deployed to different areas in the burning forest. Their days and nights coloured in a haze of smoke and ash. But they don't fight the fires as much as they manage them.

Wilbur Sabido - Chief Forest Officer
"Over the past two weeks what we recognize is that the lightning storm that passes through the Cayo District actually started majority of our fires, but again fire being a natural phenomenon and especially in pine ecosystems. There seems to be a very close intertwines relationship between fire and these types of ecosystems."

Jules Vasquez
"Fire is often your friend. Fire helps a healthy forest."

Marcello Windsor - Deputy Chief Forest Officer
"That is true and it does maintain a healthy pine forest ecosystem, so it's part of the system itself. With fires what we do is that we have a management approach to those. We use them to carry out fillings, we use them to remove all the shrubs competing vegetation and whilst you used them for wildlife habitat enhancement as well."

But for the upscale Lodges in the Pine Ridge - habitat destruction is what the faced 10 days ago when fire was at their front door.

Wilbur Sabido - Chief Forest Officer
"Actually we have an enclave that is nestled in the middle within the mountain pine ridge forest reserve and that enclave also contains resorts and lodges and one of our key priorities if fire threatens those properties is to place our priorities to try and contain and suppress fires in those particular areas."

Marcello Windsor - Deputy Chief Forest Officer
"What happen was that there were some prescribe burns being carried out by our neighbors in the northern part of the reserve and because of the thunder storm system that came by week before last - unfortunately the situation got out of control and we had bigger fires than we had anticipated. We had a number of events. We had the number 4 and number 5 fires that actually amalgamated or become one very large fire. we had that fire coming from the northern property of the reserve and then we had this one that actually jump into the national park itself and they were all trying to engulf Blancaneux Lodge, but consistently we did suppress them and of course with the efforts of everyone who assisted we brought it under control. It looks very alarming because of the enormity of things."

Domingo Ruiz - Forester, Mountain Pine Ridge
"The problem is communication - if they could communicate immediately then I would move and deal with that situation, so many of times its the communication failure."

Jules Vasquez
"So in that case when they have the most active threat you all were not direct communication?"

Domingo Ruiz - Forester, Mountain Pine Ridge
"We were not in direct communication. Afterwards I used a radio from the other company and so we had communication and we respond to every time they make a call."

But right now there is no threat to those resorts, it's just burning bush and these fire trails that look like roads - these are what keep it from spreading - still, sometimes, it jumps those trails:

Jules Vasquez
"What make a fire jump?"

Domingo Ruiz - Forester, Mountain Pine Ridge
"Well most of all its the wind. The wind is one of the variables that we cannot predict, it changes so quickly, sometimes it changes for 5 minutes to get that fire across your line and then it cools off, then we have to plan all over again how to deal with that head of fire. Yes there are some fires that are very ferocious but when you understand fire management and deal with fires on a yearly basis who know exactly what to expect of that fire, so in order not to panic - you study fire behavior and you plan ahead of the fires."

And planning ahead while making a fire-fight in real time is what they've been trying to do:

Wilbur Sabido - Chief Forest Officer
"So by and large I wish to say that we are doing what we can and I think we are doing quite a good job added not putting out all the fires but we are containing them where we feel they should be contained and leaving fires to continuing burning where they need to burn."

Chief Forest Officer Sabido says that countrywide, as many as 150,000 acres may burn this dry season….