BOGOTA- At least four active forest fires hit several regions of the country this Tuesday. Colombia and the capital Bogotá, in the midst of heat records caused by the El Niño phenomenon, authorities reported.
“Our temperature monitoring records in the national territory are showing historical maximums. Climate change is a reality in our country. We must act NOW!” warned Ghisliane Echeverry, director of the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM). , on the social network X.
According to the entity, nine municipalities in the north, center and east of the country recorded record temperatures of up to 40.4 degrees Celsius this Tuesday.
For its part, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) counted “six fires nationwide, of which three are active”, one of them in Bogotá and two in the Vichada department (east), on the border. with Venezuela.
A fourth fire devours the Páramo de Santurbán, a key ecosystem for the water cycle in the department of Santander (east), the Ministry of Environment reported in X.
In the capital, the Cerros Orientales, the mountain range that limits the city in the east, have been burning since Monday morning. A plume of smoke rises into the clear sky.
“The winds (…) spread the fire to a larger area; around 12 hectares,” reported at the end of the day Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán, who in the morning had given an estimate of 2.5 hectares affected.
“We are making efforts to prevent it from spreading further south,” Galán said, adding that “the Bogotá Fire Department has serious indications that this fire occurred due to a bonfire.”
Animals escape
The Environment Secretariat warned of “a significant deterioration” in air quality in the city of about 8 million inhabitants. Wild animals take shelter from the fire in the lower, urbanized part of the hills, added the entity, which released images of a coati wandering through the hallways of a school.
More than 270 firefighters, soldiers and rescuers are working on containment efforts, supported by two helicopters equipped with water discharge systems, a small plane and thermal drones. According to the mayor’s office, about 3,400 gallons of water have been dumped in the area.
Two other fires declared the day before in Bogotá were controlled in the last hours, according to the authorities.
In the department of Vichada, added the UNGRD, “there are two fires that affect the El Tuparro National Natural Park”, near the municipality of Cumaribo, and that the Colombian Aerospace Force is fighting to control.
Red alert in Colombia
According to the official balance, among the recently extinguished fires there is a conflagration in Cali, in Valle Del Cauca (southwest), for which its causes are being investigated.
Also in Santander, where the flames consumed more than 300 hectares this week, two outbreaks were extinguished in the municipalities of Piedecuesta and Floridablanca.
In recent months, Colombia has been facing a wave of strong forest fires due to high temperatures and drought derived from the El Niño climate phenomenon, which is expected to last until June, aggravated by global warming.
The Colombian president had warned on January 10 that the country was on “red alert” for what “may be the hottest year in the history of humanity around the world.”
According to official figures, between November 3 and January 20, at least 237 fires have occurred in the country, more than 50 so far in 2024, consuming 3,523 hectares of vegetation.
The climate authority IDEAM has 883 of the 1,101 Colombian municipalities under fire alarm, more than half (582) on red alert.
Source: AFP
