Brush fires mostly contained in Bahía de Banderas

Brush fires broke retired crossed Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit, connected Sunday, sending heavy plumes of fume crossed the country and alarming residents from Bucerías to Sayulita.

Late Sunday night, Bahía de Banderas Mayor Héctor Santana issued a connection saying that fires successful Lago Real and Bucerías had been extinguished. However, helium noted that exigency crews were inactive moving to afloat power blistery spots successful La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, peculiarly successful the country bordering the edifice zone.

The archetypal reports came from La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, wherever residents noticed fume rising from the hills supra municipality precocious Sunday morning.

Witnesses initially described the occurrence arsenic small, burning done adust brushwood connected the hillside supra the town’s edifice zone. But residents accidental the blaze dispersed rapidly arsenic the time progressed, fuelled by adust vegetation connected the slopes.

By Sunday evening, melodramatic images and videos circulating connected societal media showed lines of occurrence stretching crossed the mountains supra the bay, successful Bucerías, Sayulita, Valle de Banderas and adjacent the Lago Real residential improvement successful Mezcales.

In Bucerías, flames were reported successful the hills down the Paraíso del Indio and Javier Ovando neighbourhoods. Witnesses described ample sections of the mountainside engulfed successful flames Sunday nighttime arsenic the occurrence dispersed crossed the adust hillside overlooking the town.

La tarde de este domingo se registró un incendio forestal en un cerro cercano a La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, en Bahía de Banderas.
Las columnas de humo fueron visibles incluso desde Puerto Vallarta.

Autoridades informan que el fuego ya se encuentra controlado en un 80%. pic.twitter.com/YYsDD1q0Hi

— Tribuna de la Bahía (@tribuna_bahia) March 16, 2026

As the standard of the concern became clearer, aggregate exigency agencies joined the response.

Civil Protection and municipal occurrence crews worked alongside authorities unit successful Nayarit, portion members of the Mexican Army and Navy were deployed to assistance successful containing the fires and preventing them from reaching populated areas.

Mayor Santana besides said that effect teams had been sent to San Pancho to measure imaginable risks and forestall further fires from spreading successful the region.

Authorities person not yet confirmed the origin of the fires. Anecdotal reports suggest that immoderate whitethorn person been sparked by the burning of brushwood oregon logs, a communal signifier successful agrarian areas that tin go unsafe during the adust play if fires dispersed beyond their intended boundaries.

Locals lament dilatory effect clip of authorities

Some residents assertion municipal authorities failed to respond promptly, saying firefighters were not dispatched for respective hours aft the archetypal calls for help. By the clip crews arrived, they stated, the occurrence had already expanded significantly.

Reports besides alleged that municipal firefighters lacked specialized instrumentality needed to combat brushwood fires successful steep terrain, which whitethorn person contributed to the blaze spreading done the adust vegetation.

Some residents are calling for a person reappraisal of exigency effect procedures, including faster deployment of firefighting teams and improved instrumentality for battling wildfires successful the region’s mountainous terrain.

Wildfires are astir predominant successful the adust months of March, April and May successful Mexico. According to the National Forestry Commission (Conafor), much than 1,200 fires person been reported truthful acold successful 2026, and successful 2025, astir 70% were caused by quality activities.

Mexico News Daily