MVO inspects damage from bush fire to two instrument sites
On the weekend of 4 and 5 July 2020, a bush fire occurred on the west side of the Soufriere Hills Volcano, in the Fairfield/Trials/Broderick’s Estate area.
Due to the very dry conditions on island for the last few weeks, the fire spread quickly upslope towards the foot of Chance’s Peak, burning approximately 1 square kilometre, damaging many houses and other buildings in the process. During helicopter operations on 7 July 2020, MVO inspected two instrument sites in the area affected by the fire.
A gas monitoring site, located in Trials, close to the origin of the fire, was severely burned resulting in the loss of all instruments at the site. The other instrument site, a seismometer at Broderick’s Estate, was less affected. Although the area had clearly been burned, the instruments, solar panels and cables were largely unaffected.
The total loss of our instruments at the gas monitoring site will have an impact on our ability to monitor the SO2 flux from the volcano in the short term. We are now attempting to source replacement instruments, which will be installed at the site as soon as it is possible.
Montserrat has experienced very dry conditions over the last three months with rainfall well below average. This, coupled with strong winds on 4 July, resulted in the perfect conditions for such a devastating bush fire. Although the cause of the fire is currently unknown, the public is reminded that the affected area is well within Zone V (“exclusion zone”), to which public access is not permitted. Anyone who ignores these restrictions is liable to be prosecuted.
