As temperatures approached 40 degrees, firefighters concentrated on wildfires in nine of Argentina’s 23 provinces this weekend. One of them has been in operation for more than a month and has destroyed nearly 6,000 hectares of vegetation, with no injuries or discharges to date.
Nearly a hundred firefighters and paramedics, backed by five planes and four helicopters, fought valiantly on the fire near Lake San Martin in Nahuel Huabi National Park, 1500 km southwest of the tourist town of Bariloche (SNMF).
“This was one of the worst fires we had ever encountered in the area.AFP Lorena Ojeda, SNMF’s acting director, said the fire had been raging since December 6 following lightning strikes.
Wind and high temperatures, with a maximum of 35 to 40 degrees, “Contribute to the continued spread of fire“, With weather forecast”There may not be enough rain“, According to Ms. Ojeta.
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Native Andean forest
About 5900 hectares “Native Andean forest“The flames were caused by a mixture of cypress, bamboo, nire (Astral Beach), Maiden (spruce family tree), and Notro (Protaceae shrub), but no injuries or evacuations were reported in this hilly area.
“The fire is about 50 km from Parilocchi, but there is currently no danger of an evacuation“, Firefighters told the AFP.
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Fires in the forests of southern and central Argentina, a country five times larger than France, are a common occurrence in southern summers.
But coastal areas are generally low, with many reports this summer.
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Drought
Recent Panorama “The climate is very unfavorable, with two consecutive years of drought […], A constant heat wave“Sergio Fedorovsky, biologist and deputy minister of the environment, explained to the public radio station Radio Telem.
On Friday the SNMF bulletin reported about thirty eruptions in nine separate provinces, half of which were “Assets“.
However, according to the latest figures from the SNMF, 2021 is one of the least vulnerable years in terms of five hectares of forest destroyed by fire in five years: 330,000 hectares were recorded, compared to 1.1 million hectares by 2020.
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