Firefighters battle blazes around Brazil’s capital

Brasilia is battling its worst fires so far this year.
Brazilian firefighters on Monday battled a raging blaze in a nature reserve in the capital, Brasilia, where an area the size of 3,000 football fields has already been burned.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called an emergency cabinet meeting after the worst drought in 70 years has sparked fires in the Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetlands, blanketing major cities including Rio de Janeiro in smoke.
The capital, Brasilia, is the latest to be hit, battling some of the worst fires this year, with residents using buckets of water to dampen endangered homes.
Three separate fires broke out in Brasilia National Park over the weekend, burning about 1,200 hectares by Monday as dozens of firefighters using planes and helicopters struggled to quell the onslaught, authorities said.
“The flames spread very quickly and reached a height of about six metres. Residents started mobilising,” Simone Costa, 51, a nurse, told AFP as she inspected the damage with her husband and daughter near their Brasilia home.
“We grabbed buckets of water and tried to put out the fire so it doesn’t spread any further,” she said.
Officials warned that the situation could worsen as Brasilia remains extremely dry after 140 days without rain.
According to satellite data from the INPE research institute, the number of fires that have broken out in Brazil so far this month (57,312) has already exceeded the total for all of September 2023.
Water levels in some of Brazil’s dams are historically low, causing cities such as Rio to be affected by water restrictions.
Experts say droughts are being made more likely by climate change, but authorities say most of the fires are set illegally.
© 2024 AFP
Source: Firefighters battle blazes around Brazil’s capital city, September 17, 2024. Retrieved September 17, 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-09-firefighters-flames-brazil-capital.html
This document is subject to copyright. It may not be reproduced without written permission, except for fair dealing for the purposes of personal study or research. The content is provided for informational purposes only.