berisso firefighters, collaborating in a fire in parque pereyra/fb
There is hardly any land with grasslands in the Region that resists without igniting fire in this context of heat accompanied by drought. And for that reason, as usually happens at this time of the year, the fire teams do not reach the barracks after controlling a grass fire that they immediately have to go out again to put out a new one. The most affected plots are usually those located to the south and west of La Plata.
The multiplication of fires worries not only the fire departments of the Region, which are overwhelmed with tasks; It also worries the agricultural sector due to the losses that many times mean large areas with rural activity destroyed by the flames; And not to mention the shock of the neighbors every time fields, vacant lots and garbage dumps burn a few steps from their homes. Nights ago, for example, the alarm was given when the fire reached the Mafissa plant, the Olmos industrial establishment. It all started, precisely, with flames in grasslands near the 44 property between 184 and 185, they spread to a mountain of waste and finally reached the factory.
In these days of very high temperatures, a drought that continues without pause and winds that run at times like sudden gusts, it is frequent, from the town center of La Plata itself, to notice high columns of blackened smoke on the horizon of any cardinal point.
“In Berisso we are with the normal number of fires for this time, which are three or four per day and very controllable, but we realize that in other parts of the Region the issue is worrisome: in twelve days that we have started the In the eighth year we had to leave to collaborate with other barracks, due to accidents in Pereyra Park or Punta Lara, for example”, pointed out the president of the Berisso Volunteer Firefighters Society, Roberto Scafati.
Leonardo Roldán, director of Civil Protection of the Municipality of La Plata, indicated that the phenomenon is due to a seasonal issue. “Every year, at this time, there is an increase in the number of grassland fires, which is generated by high temperatures, low relative humidity and lack of rainfall, which added to the intensity of the wind are factors determinants in the development and propagation of this type of fires”, he explained.
Roldán stressed that extinguishing this type of fire requires “significant” physical wear and tear, since “one works for long hours, on days of high temperatures, on land without access to vehicles and often using hand tools.”
In the Rural Society of La Plata, during a meeting of the Agricultural Emergency Table, the concern was transferred to representatives of the Municipality. It was then agreed to summon the firefighters for the next meeting. “Last year there were several cases of fires in fields in the area that overlook the roads. And it is that people throw things or the fields are not as clean as they should be or the grass is short. This can generate fires and burn meters and meters of wire that add costs to the producers”, stated the leader Hernán Silva, head of the entity.
Until this point in the summer, Ensenada has not been a district very affected by the open fires. “We have had some small focus and nothing more. We are doing frequent checks in the Reserve, in an area where there was a big fire a few years ago. With the drought, in such a grassland, it is enough for someone to throw a cigarette to start a fire”, they pointed out in the neighboring commune.
