30 cities in southeastern Brazil on maximum alert due to wildfires

Forest fire Local authorities in southeastern Brazil had to declare Maximum alert in 30 cities of San Pablo stateWhere the fire blocked roads and smoke reached the capital of São Paulo.

with atmospheric conditions Temperature above 35 ºC and low humidityadded to one Prolonged drought In this region, they set fire to the northwest of Brazil’s most populous state, with 44 million inhabitants.

On Friday night, the São Paulo government set up a Crisis Cabinet Coordinating efforts to tackle the flames.

“Currently we have 30 cities on maximum alert Due to a major fire and we are working to control the situation and guarantee the safety of the people,” the governor said. Tarcisio de Freitas On the social network X.

local officials said this Two factory workers in the Municipality of UrupesIn the north of the state, He died while trying to control the fire,

generated by the advance of the flames Major transport disruptionsTraffic on a dozen roads was either completely or partially blocked due to reduced visibility because of the smoke.

Meanwhile, the capital of São Paulo is covered in a thick gray fog.Fire can spread quickly with gusts of wind“, the government warned in a statement.

,The fire produces thick, toxic smoke that harms the environment and human health.causing problems for the respiratory system and cardiovascular disorders,” he said.

The situation was serious in sao jose do rio pretoA city of 480,000 inhabitants where more than 335 fires were reported in the past four days and classes were suspended, according to local press.

An article was published last month the new York Times And infobaesaid that scientists have warned The burning of such vast expanses of land under rising global temperatures and erratic rainfall may represent a new normal.Who Tries to save too much some of the The most important ecosystems in the world,

between January and June This year there were More wildfires in the Brazilian part of the Pantanala huge treasure of Biodiversity The fires spread across three countries, far exceeding those of the same period in any other year, according to the National Institute for Space Research, which has been monitoring fires in Brazil since 1998.

It is about Highest number of fires in at least two decadesWhich also affected Amazon and Cerrado Savannaa mosaic of Shrubs, grasslands and thorn trees that covers some 3.1 million kilometres Class in the central and northeastern regions of Brazil.

,This is very worrying“, Said Anne AlencarScientific director of the Institute for Environmental Research of the Brazilian Amazon. According to Alencar, fires of this magnitude They usually don’t happen until August or September.The months with the highest intensity. But the extreme weather has caused fires set recklessly by people to grow increasingly out of control, Alencar said, “creating ideal conditions for any spark to become a wildfire.”

The Pantanal – part of which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List – is more than 20 times the size of the Everglades. It spans the borders dividing Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, and about 80 percent lies in Brazil.

This year’s fires have burned about 5 percent of the Brazilian PantanalAn area roughly the size of Phoenix. And experts say the wetlands could be on track for a fire season even worse than 2020, when a third of the Pantanal burned and nearly 17 million animals died.