The large forest fire that has burned more than 8,000 hectares in the town of El Bolsón in Rio Negro, Argentina, and has caused significant environmental damage as it reaches the province of Chubut near the town of El Maitén on Thursday (January 28).
Fernando Arbat, Rio Negro's Undersecretary of Forest Resources, assured there are no injured animals.
SHOTLIST:
1. Various of fores fires
2. Various of firefighters work at night
3. Photos of the forest fires
STORYLINE:
The forest fire that has already affected more than 8,000 hectares in the town of El Bolsón in Rio Negro and caused significant environmental damage, reached the province of Chubut, near the town of El Maitén, in Argentine Patagonia.
The Civil Defense coordinator of the Patagonian city of El Bolsón, Leandro Romairone said that “in the town it is raining, a light rain, light rains; this is not having an impact yet in the area of the fire, although logically the humidity and the drop in temperature are favoring the control tasks”.
He also explained that "it is being possible to contain the advance of fire in some sectors and especially protecting the most critical places."
Regarding how what happened affects the environment, Fernando Arbat, Rio Negro's Undersecretary of Forest Resources, assured that "the amount of native or implanted forest consumed is 8,000 hectares, the environmental damage is very important, very serious."
The fire affected native vegetation such as lengas, cypresses, maitenes, ñires and radales, as well as different varieties of pine such as oregón, insigne, murrayana and ponderosa.
“Cypress trees that are on the slope of the Piltriquitrón mountain have been burned. Lenga trees were also consumed, which are above 900 meters and are part of the native forest ”, he specified. He explained that in Cuesta de Calnero with gusts of up to 90 kilometers per hour on Monday "in 12 hours 5,800 hectares were consumed."
He also asserted that "Monday's fires were extremely serious and with a voracity that the technicians and people who are working on forest fires had never seen of that magnitude."
The undersecretary also reported that no injured animals were registered, which “must have been affected but were not locked up by the fire and had escape routes; there are no species in captivity that have suffered injuries ”.
At the request of the province, the national government, through the National Fire Management Service, deployed 36 brigades from the National Brigade of the SNMF and the National Parks Administration, seven fire trucks, seven pick-up trucks, two helicopters and two fire hydrant planes. based in Bariloche.
The Municipality of El Bolsón, meanwhile, added two tanker trucks with municipal personnel to the operation, in which nearly 100 people from different institutions such as SPLIF El Bolsón work intensely; SNMF; Splif Bariloche; Volunteer firemen; Provincial Civil Protection and Municipal Civil Defense.
