Tuesday, December 29th 2015. Colombian authorities have reported around 300 hectares of forest absolutely burnt down after having been affected by 15 fires in the past four days. The Hydrology, Forecast and Environment Studies Institutes of Colombia (Ideam) issued a red alert in 20 departments (states) due to the high temperatures that have helped spread uncontrollable forest fires.
The National Risk Assessment Support Team, consisting of the Firefighters, Police, Civil Defense, Red Cross and Airforce, performed fire containment maneuvers and reported that they had already put 7 of the 15 fires under control.
The Colombian Airforce labor has been remarkable, as they clock over 4 hours of continuous helicopter flight; spraying around 43.000 gallons of water and fire retardant fluids in order to quench the flames that had already claimed the life of a man identified as José Zapata, 67 years old, who died in the middle of the fire surrounding a farm that belonged to him, located in Guarne Municipality, Antioquia.
Investigation leads to the fires having been started by men and spread due to the droughts and the consequential dryness of the vegetable layer in the ground plus the strong winds; consequence of the presence of the climatic phenomenon El Niño.
The Firefighter Captain in Cundinamarca, Iván Darío Valenzuela; soundly stated that most of the currently active fires, were sparked by unscrupulous characters and criminals who don’t care about the magnitude of such barbaric actions. He also voiced a warning call to the mayors of the departments where woods are being burned to extract coal, to pay attention to this problem and to stop spreading forest fires even more.
On the other hand, Chile is also on red alert due to the fires around the Maule, Ohiggins and Metropolitan regions; in this case the fires were caused by the intense heatwave registered in the last few days.
The National Emergency Office (Onemi), reported that Maule is the most affected zone, where the fire has already razed over 200 hectares and threatened to reach homes, crops and livestock. Thanks to the National Forest Corporation’s (Conaf) Firefighting Brigade providing air support and some heavy labor, the fire was contained before larger damage could be done.
In Melipilla, close to Santiago, the ONEMI also issued a red alert this Sunday after a fire sparked and caused damage to 60 hectares of land, and put several homes in danger. This organization explained as well that this type of red alert is applied when a disaster spreads putting health, life, belongings and environment in danger. After the alert is put in place, a resource mobilization in order to control the situation quickly follows.
ALFA