A section of Mt Longonot has been on fire since Tuesday night, September 28.
Efforts to put out the inferno have proved difficult due to strong winds in the region, according to Hells Gate National Park, Senior Warden Francis Muchiri.
Firefighters and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) personnel reported to the area and are currently battling the huge inferno that has engulfed a section of Mt Longonot.
Local residents also joined the team of experts to help put out the fire, which is destroying vegetation on the mountain.
“We are getting assistance from the locals to extinguish the fire but the blaze is severe and more assistance is needed,” Muchiri told a local publication.
Smoke billowing from the mountain could be seen from miles away showing the top of Mt Longononot burning.
Mt Longonot is an extinct volcano in the Great Rift Valley, located in Naivasha and is a tourist attraction in Kenya due to the vast birds' species that are found in the area.
In 2009, Mt Longonot was on fire and the inferno sent wild animals fleeing. Residents suspected that the fire was started by illegal charcoal burners.
Fires are common around Longonot, and in other parts of the country during the dry season.
Kenya is facing drought this year and has left more than 2.1 million people in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) of Kenya facing hunger.
In July 2020, an inferno engulfed a section of the Tsavo West National Park, destroying vegetation on thousands of acres of land.
Videos shared online, showed the fire spread across both sides of the Nairobi-Mombasa road along the Mwakitau area.
This was the second major wildfire incident reported in the conservation area in just two months, with the cause of the fire yet to be established.
