Two people were injured in the village of Nagataima, hardest hit by the fires, as an aqueduct and houses were destroyed
Its principles Colombia have shown themselves in a struggle to limit forest fires in the western and southern parts of the country, which have turned into landslides over 90,000 hectares of vegetation and are strengthened by drought and high temperatures.
The prefectures of Tolima, Cundinamarca, Huila, Nariño, Cauca and Valle del Cauca are affected, according to their announcements.
At least 25 outbreaks were active yesterday Friday around noon, half of them in the Tolima prefecture (west), according to the national disaster and risk management unit.
Two people were injured in the village of Nagataima, which was hit hardest by the fires, as an aqueduct and houses were destroyed, according to the same source.
The temperature in the area exceeded 41° Celsius, noted the environment service of the prefecture.
In the neighboring province of Cundinamarca, not far from the country’s capital Bogota, roads were closed and dozens of firefighters are working to control fronts with the help of helicopters and the armed forces.
In the province of Uila (southwest), where a state of disaster was declared on Sunday, six municipalities continued to be affected by the fires.
These provinces experience “a lack of rainfall and an increase in temperatures” that generally make it easier for fires to break out, explained Jisliane Etcheverry, the director general of Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM).
Other Latin American countries have also been faced with heatwaves and widespread fires in the current period. In Ecuador, more than 230,000 hectares of forest lands went up in smoke from August 23 to September 18, while in Peru, a state of emergency was declared in three prefectures where multiple fire outbreaks have occurred.
Brazil is ravaged by a “pandemic of fires,” as a member of the Supreme Court put it, with 61,572 fire outbreaks in the first 17 days of September, compared to 46,498 in the entire corresponding month of 2023.
The fires, mostly caused by arson, according to Brazilian authorities, have hit key biodiversity zones, notably the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest wetlands, the Cejando and the Pantanal — and even a national park in the capital Brasilia.
Source :Skai
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