Hundreds of animals flee Kenyan wildfire

Yahoo News 22 Mar 09;

NAIROBI (AFP) – Hundreds of zebras, buffalos and gazelles are fleeing a fast-spreading wildfire in a national park in Kenya's Rift Valley, park authorities said Sunday.

Mount Logonot National Park head Peter Muthusi told AFP the fire, which started Saturday, was now under control, but small animals remained at risk.

"The fire is burning from inside the crater (of Mount Logonot, a dormant volcano), and there is nothing we can do but watch and wait until it dies down," he said.

The fire has ravaged larges swathe of the parched and arid park, fanned by strong winds, and its cause has yet to be determined, Muthusi said.

But local resident Charles Mburu speculated that illegal charcoal burners could have started the fire, which he described as "the biggest I have ever seen in the last 10 years."

Park fires occur frequently and are difficult to contain during the dry season, which runs from January through March.