India is sweltering under a major heat wave

Thursday, April 28, and for three days, a gigantic wild dump has been burning in New Dehli (India) while a major heat wave hits the capital. Garbage is burning and firefighters are working tirelessly to put out the blaze. The dry and hot weather would have produced an excess of methane here and triggered the start of the fire. For two months, New Delhi has displayed abnormally high temperatures for the season. On Thursday it was 43 degrees, compared to the normal 37 degrees in April.

Workers no longer know how to deal with the heat. “It’s so hot, it’s unbearable. Normally, in March and April, it’s mild, it’s spring. It’s the months of May, June and July that are very hot”laments Deepak Kumar, warehouseman. The first victims of these extreme conditions are the inhabitants of the poorest neighborhoods. In places, the heat leads to power cuts and most houses cannot have air conditioning.