Authorities in Argentina’s south have evacuated some 3,000 tourists from a sparsely populated Patagonian district ravaged by wildfires for days, officials said Wednesday.
Thousands of hectares of forest have been devoured by fire since Monday in a part of Argentina still recovering a year on from its worst wildfires in three decades.
Hundreds of firefighters with backup from helicopters and six water-bombing planes were working to contain the flames whipped up by high temperatures, strong winds and severe drought conditions.
"We evacuated more than 3,000 tourists" from the Puerto Patriada lake resort, north of Lake Epuyén, along with a few dozen permanent residents, Chubut Province Governor Ignacio Torres said on Wednesday.
He did not say where the visitors were from.
The fires started Monday near the Andean village, home to around 50 permanent residents. Within a few hours it spread rapidly due to dry weather conditions and strong winds.
"It is advancing at giant strides," said Belén Moreno, a 39-year-old dress designer who lives with her family a few kilometres out of Puerto Patriada.
"We’ve been having fires for several years now at this time of year so that as soon as we see smoke in the sky, we all start paying attention," said Moreno.
Intent
Torres said at least one of the fires was the result of arson. “The wretches who started the fire will end up in prison,” the governor declared, announcing a reward of 50 million pesos (about US$33,000) for information on the culprits.
The fire "was started with an accelerant or petrol, which indicates that someone deliberately set the fire," said prosecutor Carlos Díaz Mayer.
Besides Chubut, fires are also raging in the provinces of Neuquén, Santa Cruz and Río Negro as well as southern Buenos Aires Province, according to the Agencia Federal de Emergencias.
According to the agency, active outbreaks are affecting more than 500 hectares of terrain, with a further 3,000 hectares classified as “contained fires.”
The National Fire Management Service has issued a red alert in eight provinces in the centre and south of the country.
Nearly 32,000 hectares – an area twice the size of Brussels – was burnt in the Argentine Patagonia in January and February last year, the peak of the Southern Hemisphere summer.
"The incinerated area was fourfold the previous season, making these, due to their enormous scale and impact, the worst forest fires of the last three decades in the region," Hernán Giardini, coordinator of Greenpeace Argentina's Forest Programme, told the AFP news agency.
Giardini said that cutbacks by President Javier MIlei government at the Administración de Parques Nacionales, which concentrates some 30 percent of the forests in the Patagonian Andes, had affected firefighting efforts.
"Its fire brigade only numbers 400 when there should be at least 700 to cover the nearly five million hectares under its jurisdiction and aid the provinces when summoned," said the activist.
– TIMES/AFP
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