Quito won’t bill residents for firefighting water
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The Municipality of Quito, Ecuador will not charge residents for the water they used to fight the Casitagua and La Vicentina forest fires.
Mayor Pabel Muñoz ordered that the water used during the emergency not be included in residents’ bills, repeating a practice from the 2024 forest fires. This decision aims to prevent people involved in fighting the fires from seeing unexpected increases in their water bills.
Firefighters are currently working to fully extinguish the Casitagua fire, now considered controlled, by locating and eliminating any remaining hot spots. The process of eliminating these hot spots could take another 24 to 48 hours depending on weather conditions, as winds have previously caused the fire to flare up again. During the firefighting operations, teams used drones to identify areas with high temperatures, some reaching 130 to 150 degrees Celsius.
The Casitagua fire burned approximately 300 hectares and required days of aerial and ground operations. The Municipality has not yet explained how it will identify the water used specifically for firefighting or what steps residents need to take. Authorities continue to ask the public to report any signs of fire or smoke to 9-1-1.
