Kenyan wildlife park bush fire rages for second day

NAKURU, Kenya (Reuters) - Using branches to beat backflames, Kenyan rangers and residents struggled for a second dayon Saturday to control bush fires that have engulfed a third ofone of the nation's best-known wildlife parks.

At least 100 local citizens joined wildlife officials tohelp put out the fire, which was accidentally started in anearby village and has already destroyed large patches of the188 square km Lake Nakuru National Park.

"We just heard people screaming from afar and we knew itwas about the fire, so we came immediately to put it out," saidDorcas Kafiri, running towards the fire with a branch in hand.

She, like other villagers near to the park, jumped througha fence to come and help.

Hundreds of workers, soldiers and policemen battled themain blaze for 12 hours on Friday, largely containing it. Butfresh fires broke out on Saturday morning.

The blaze at one of Kenya's most popular destinations isanother hit to the ailing tourism industry, which has seendeclining numbers and profits since a post-election crisis thatkilled more than 1,000 people.

Lake Nakuru park, normally teeming with U.S., European andother tourists driving around in four-wheel-drive vehicles, hasbeen virtually devoid of visitors since the December 27 vote.

When the fire began, grass parched from a recent lack ofrain made fertile fuel. A Reuters reporter saw blackened hillswith plumes of smoke behind and fringes of flames movingforward.

Most famous for the hordes of flamingos that gather on itslake shore, the park in central Kenya is home to 450 speciesincluding white rhinos, giraffes and lions.

"This was definitely an accident. It was not an act ofarson," said senior warden Charles Muthui, saying a woman froma nearby village started the fire while burning wood. Windsthen quickly carried the blaze into the park.

"Tourists don't want to see fires, they want to seeanimals," Muthui said at the park entrance.

Despite the fire, baboons wandered unperturbed around otherparts of the park, while some groups of gazelles even trottedover the scorched earth. Rhinos lounged next to a creek.

Game wardens said the fire appeared to have largely sparedthe wildlife, although a reporter saw a charred turtle.

(Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Caroline Drees)