This year fire season has come early, and come with a vengeance. The heat settled in in early February, a full month earlier than usual. The hot winds were not far behind. This is already the time of year when farmers burn their fields after the cane and corn harvest. It's so easy for those fires to spread, and some of them have. There are extensive forest fires along the border. This week the haze in Mae Sot is so bad that many people started having symptoms, coughs, hoarseness, headache. Flights stopped landing in Mae Sot due to poor visibility. It hangs thick in the air, you can see it, smell it, taste it.
In grad school I remember writing a paper on the cost benefit analysis of exercising in areas with poor air quality. The conclusion: when particulate matter is high, exercise does more damage than good. All of that deep breathing brings those particles far deeper into the lungs than usual, significantly increasing the chance of harm. So don't go jogging in Beijing, a street with a lot of car exhaust, or right now, in Mae Sot.
On Thursday the fire got to a whole new level. In the middle of the day a liquid fuel canister exploded in a house in the middle of Umpiem Mai refugee camp, the second largest and perhaps most densely populated camp in Thailand. Thai laws prevent any permanent structures from being built in refugee camps (having to do with their reluctance to recognize refugees, and desire to minimize any incentives to stay in Thailand). As a result, all of the houses are built with bamboo, and most have traditional roofs of folded teak leaves. That have been drying in the hot arid air, that need only the smallest spark to launch into flames. The fire spread to ten homes within minutes, in a quarter of an hour, three sections of the camp were a raging inferno, consuming everything.
Fire is a constant risk in the camp, and one they are not unaware of. There are reminders every night over the loudspeakers, and every home ties bags of sand and water under their eaves, knowing that the only way to stop a fire in Umpiem is to put it out before it spreads.
This one was not stopped in time. By the time is was controlled, which was achieved by tearing down hundreds more houses to create a firebreak, about a thousand homes were destroyed, affecting over 4,000 camp residents, about a quarter of the camp population.
Although the days are now hot, the nights are still cool, especially in Umpiem, which a trick of geography keeps cooler than the surrounding area, meaning that immediate shelter was imperative. The community, in Umpiem, in Mae Sot, of Burmese, Thais, Karen, and INGOs, sprang into action, collecting blankets, clothes, food, cooking pots, and mosquito nets to distribute. The fire was out by late afternoon, and the first donations started rolling into the camp around sunset.
The fire still smolders in some of the rubble, and in some places, even underground. For the time being, the affected families are setting up temporary shelters in another area of camp, built with line and poles and plastic sheets, and sleeping under donated blankets. When the ground is cool, they will return to their allotted land, and clear the rubble, and build again.
Its terrible to think that these people, who have been chased from their homes, and their country, who have become stateless inhabitants of a guarded camp in a country that doesn't want them, are again uprooted, again bereft. How much turmoil can someone be expected to recover from? Fortunately, there is a supportive community able to provide a quick response, and the immediate needs will be quickly met. The lasting impact will take some time to assess.
Umphiem Fire (2/23/12) from Trish Becker on Vimeo.
The photos below and the video were taken by my friend Trish, and are shared from http://umphiemfirerelief.wordpress.com/
In grad school I remember writing a paper on the cost benefit analysis of exercising in areas with poor air quality. The conclusion: when particulate matter is high, exercise does more damage than good. All of that deep breathing brings those particles far deeper into the lungs than usual, significantly increasing the chance of harm. So don't go jogging in Beijing, a street with a lot of car exhaust, or right now, in Mae Sot.
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| A teak leaf roof on a building, overlooking the rest of the camp |
This one was not stopped in time. By the time is was controlled, which was achieved by tearing down hundreds more houses to create a firebreak, about a thousand homes were destroyed, affecting over 4,000 camp residents, about a quarter of the camp population.
Although the days are now hot, the nights are still cool, especially in Umpiem, which a trick of geography keeps cooler than the surrounding area, meaning that immediate shelter was imperative. The community, in Umpiem, in Mae Sot, of Burmese, Thais, Karen, and INGOs, sprang into action, collecting blankets, clothes, food, cooking pots, and mosquito nets to distribute. The fire was out by late afternoon, and the first donations started rolling into the camp around sunset.
The fire still smolders in some of the rubble, and in some places, even underground. For the time being, the affected families are setting up temporary shelters in another area of camp, built with line and poles and plastic sheets, and sleeping under donated blankets. When the ground is cool, they will return to their allotted land, and clear the rubble, and build again.
Its terrible to think that these people, who have been chased from their homes, and their country, who have become stateless inhabitants of a guarded camp in a country that doesn't want them, are again uprooted, again bereft. How much turmoil can someone be expected to recover from? Fortunately, there is a supportive community able to provide a quick response, and the immediate needs will be quickly met. The lasting impact will take some time to assess.
Umphiem Fire (2/23/12) from Trish Becker on Vimeo.
The photos below and the video were taken by my friend Trish, and are shared from http://umphiemfirerelief.wordpress.com/
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