Many sugar cane trees were black and burned bare. Picture: Tuan Anh
On February 3, the People’s Committee of Ia Piar Municipality (Phu Thien District) confirmed that there had been a widespread sugarcane fire in the area. Specifically, the fire burned 37.3 hectares of sugar cane from 28 households in 3 days (January 26, 29 and 30). After the information was gathered, the municipality reported it to Phu Thien District, and the purchasing unit, Ayun Pa Sugar Factory, came down to seek directions.
As the reporter noted, there are about 200 hectares of sugar cane ready for harvest in the area of Ia Piar Municipality. However, the unusual fire caused damage to many people’s sugar cane fields. According to many people here, the fire spread very quickly across the sugar cane fields in Ia Piar municipality. The sugar cane fields were burned black, bare from the helplessness of the people.
Of these, 2.7 ha of sugar cane were completely incinerated. Mr. Pham Van Ba (So Ma Ron Hamlet, Ia Peng Parish) shook his head and said that people also knew when sugar cane was burning, but because the strong wind caused the fire to spread quickly, it could not be saved . “When I see the fire burning up my fortune of hundreds of millions of dongs, I just want to cry, I feel helpless,” Mr. Ba said sadly.
Sugar cane farmers suffered heavy losses. Photo: Tuan Anh
According to Mr. Ba, in addition to his family, dozens of other households also faced the same situation, almost all of the sugar cane was burned. “We also don’t understand the cause of the fire, only know that people are suffering great harm,” Mr. Ba said.
Mr. Ba added that this year’s sugar cane harvest has passed harvest season, but the factory has been very slow to buy. If the factory had shopped for the people in time, this unfortunate incident might not have happened. Not to mention that the sugar reserves were significantly reduced when incinerated, so the factory demanded a deduction of VND 50,000 for each ton of sugar cane. Therefore, people see as heavy losses.
According to many households here, sugar cane is the main source of income, burning sugar cane is not profitable, so life is becoming more and more difficult.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. Picture: Tuan Anh
Mr Bui Trong Thanh, head of the Phu Thien District Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: “As soon as the information was received, the ministry sent someone down to check it out. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but must await information from the police. However, many areas of burning cane may have been burned by carefree people and it was the dry season so the fire spread very quickly. In addition, the burning sugar cane fields fall at night, so it is difficult to handle.
“Once the sugar cane was burned, the purchasing unit, Ayun Pa Sugar Factory, let people in to harvest it to reduce the harm to people,” Mr. Thanh informed.