Brazilian firefighters are waging a fierce battle Monday against a fire that broke out the day before in a nature reserve in Brasília, one of the frontlines of the battle against wildfires in Latin America’s largest country.
Faced with the spread of fires, which are also ravaging the Amazon (north), the Pantanal (central-west), the largest wetland in the world, and other regions, left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called a meeting of his government on Monday to consider new measures.
The biggest fire of the year in the Brazilian capital has enveloped the city in a toxic cloud, a phenomenon seen in recent weeks in other major cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In some neighborhoods, visibility was very low, AFP found.
Three fires broke out Sunday in the Brasília National Park, a water and wildlife reserve.
Using planes and helicopters, around a hundred firefighters are working to combat the flames.
“It is not possible to say at this time when we will be finished with this fire,” said Carolina Schubart, from the Environment Secretariat of the Federal District, a region that includes Brasília.
Faced with the fire, which has already consumed 1,200 hectares, residents have resorted to simple buckets of water to prevent the fire from spreading to their homes.
Investigation in Rio
“The flames started coming very quickly, to a height of about six metres, and the community started to mobilise,” Simone Costa, a 51-year-old nurse who came with her husband and daughter to observe the damage caused by the flames near their home, told AFP.
“We took buckets of water and tried to control the fire so that it wouldn’t get any closer to the houses. Thank God, we managed it,” she added. Her family found a dead armadillo in the rubble.
In Rio de Janeiro state, police are investigating more than 20 people suspected of starting the wildfires ravaging the region.
Since Thursday, the regional government has set up a crisis cabinet and firefighters have tackled more than 1,200 fires, according to authorities.
In Brazil, the number of fires recorded so far in September (57,312) has already exceeded the total number for the same month last year (46,498), according to data released by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), a public body, based on satellite data.
Fueled by a historic drought that experts attribute in part to climate change, the fires are mostly arson-related, authorities say.