MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine province of Córdoba gripped by wildfires

Authorities in the Argentine province of Córdoba are increasingly concerned about multiple outbreaks of forest fires ravaging the departments of Santa María, Punilla, Totoral, Minas, and San Justo, leaving the district in a state of emergency, it was reported.

 Meanwhile, citizens began self-evacuating as the flames approached the summer resort of Villa Carlos Paz and other locations in the Punilla Valley, with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius, adding to the plight of firefighters amid northerly winds gusting to more than 70 kilometers per hour.

Local law enforcement authorities arrested Ulises Pedro Xarate, 27, who was charged with arson by state prosecutor Jorgelina Gómez. The suspect confessed to lighting a fire in an area between Cabalango and Tanti to boil water in a kettle for a cup of coffee but lost control of the flames.

Reinforcements from the National Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development were reported to have been deployed while the local Highway Police closed Provincial Route 14 between Villa Carlos Paz and San Antonio de Arredondo due to poor visibility caused by smoke.

Hundreds of videos showing the disaster went viral on social networks.

“The fire is very active between Carlos Paz and San Antonio de Arredondo, towards the south of the neighborhood 400 Viviendas of the mountain village”, provincial Secretary of Climate Risk Management Claudio Vignetta told local media.

He added that “in this sector, we have an interface risk -danger for the houses- so the staff has been working very hard together with four airplanes and a helicopter that is doing the heliball permanently throwing water to the area where we have the greatest risk.”

He also warned that “the situation is complicated, the temperature is high, the wind is intense, and the humidity is practically non-existent. This forces us to protect houses and all the brigade members and firefighters” as housing arrangements were being made for those who had to flee their homes.

Villa Carlos Paz Communications Coordinator Jorge Boido said several houses were affected in a “peripheral neighborhood on the way to Cabalango.”