Fire Officer Anthony Babauta of the Fire Prevention Forestry Section told the Variety that the fire started at about 10:04 a.m. and was under control at 11: 39 a.m.
“We don’t know yet how the fire started but we will be conducting an investigation,” Babauta said.
He added that they had to order the students of Kagman Elementary School to get out of their classrooms because of the thick smoke.
After the fire was put under control, Babauta said the students returned to their classrooms.
The burned area was about 200 feet away from the back of the school.
Babauta said firefighters from the Kagman Fire Station, the Kagman Community Center and the Koblerville Fire Station responded to the scene.
He said that so far, yesterday’s incident was the biggest brush fire in Kagman.
“We’ve responded to over 10 fire incidents in Kagman for this year, with three or four of the incidents involving brush fires but this had been the biggest,” he said.
Babauta said the most common causes of previous brush fires on island are human factors, like somebody burning trash on roadsides.
Babauta is reminding the community to take extra precautions especially in this dry season.
