Fire rages in ‘sacred’ Mount Banahaw

Fire in Mount Banahaw, Quezon province, decimated 50 hectares of the mountain, officials said. The affected portion of Banahaw is just a little bigger than the land area of SM Mall of Asia, which is 42 hectares. “Most likely it was a man-made fire,” said Ivan Herzano, project officer of the Foundation for the Philippine Environment. Since 2004, backpackers have been banned from scaling the 2,158-meter (7,080-foot) peak to protect the flora and fauna that thrive in the mountain. Several small sects that worship at caves and springs on its lower slopes continue to have access there, however.


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