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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, May 6th 2025 - 16:34 UTC

Tag: fires

  • Tuesday, September 17th 2024 - 10:40 UTC

    Uruguayan Air Force C-130 back from firefighting mission in Paraguay

    The FAU aircraft dropped US-developed “Guardian” boxed with 1,000 liters of water each

    A Uruguayan Air Force (FAU) Hercules C-130 four-engined turboprop aircraft landed back in Montevideo Monday after participating in a firefighting mission in Paraguay. The cooperation consisted mainly of dropping firefighting boxes in the northern Paraguayan Chaco where over 180,000 hectares were engulfed by the flames.

  • Tuesday, September 17th 2024 - 10:37 UTC

    At least 15 dead in Peruvian forest fires

    Efforts from ill-equipped local communities are not enough. Help from Lima and abroad is very much needed

    At least 15 people have died as a result of uncontrollable forest fires that have affected 22 of Peru's 24 departments. Peru's National Civil Defense Institute (Indeci) said that the departments of Cuzco, Cajamarca, Huancavelica, and Huánuco were the worst affected areas. In the Amazonas region, authorities are already talking of a “catastrophe” in the midst of a historic drought after three months without rain.

  • Wednesday, July 17th 2024 - 07:45 UTC

    Brazil has 96% of Pantanal fires under control

    “We have to keep our teams moving,” Silva insisted

    Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva said Tuesday that at least 96% of the fires in the Pantanal, Pantanal, a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area and the world's largest flooded grasslands, had been put out or were under control, Agencia Brasil reported. She made the announcement alongside fellow Ministers Simone Tebet (Budget and Planning) and Waldez Góes (Integration and Regional Development) in Corumbá, in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul.

  • Tuesday, February 20th 2024 - 15:19 UTC

    Argentina: Fires in Patagonian National Parks close to being controlled

    However, “there is still a risk that the outbreaks could be reactivated,” the National Parks Administration said in a statement

    Firefighters in the Argentine National Parks of Los Alerces and Nahuel Huapi were closer Monday to “controlling” and “containing” part of the catastrophe. In Los Alerces, there were still active outbreaks in addition to some 8,000 hectares of native forest burned down, it was reported.

  • Tuesday, March 14th 2023 - 09:38 UTC

    Amazon fires grip 90% of the area in first two months of 2023

    According to a report issued Monday by the Fire Monitor, an initiative of the Annual Mapping Project of Land Use and Land Cover in Brazil (MapBiomas) in partnership with the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), the Amazon biome concentrated 90% of its areas with fires, representing 487,000 hectares. In the first two months of 2022, the area totaled 654,000 hectares. In the country's six biomes - Amazonia, Caatinga, Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, Pampa, and Pantanal - there were fires over 536,000 hectares.

  • Tuesday, January 11th 2022 - 20:19 UTC

    Consecutive fires hit Chilean town of Iquique

    There were no fatalities but the first fire did leave some 15 people injured

    A fire in Iquique, in the Tarapacá region, has left some 400 Chileans homeless, including 15 injured Monday, but no fatalities were reported. But when things seemed to be getting back to normal, a second fire not far from the previous one added to the locals' nightmare.

  • Wednesday, August 26th 2020 - 09:50 UTC

    Fires are raging in several Argentine provinces fueled by strong winds and persistent drought

    Cordoba’s government warned of an “extreme” risk of fires throughout the province amid the dry and windy weather and called on citizens to report them.

    Fires are raging in Argentina’s Cordoba province, prompting evacuations and threatening to destroy homes, fueled in part by strong winds and a lack of rain, officials said on Monday.

  • Thursday, April 30th 2020 - 07:37 UTC

    Brazilian Vice President says army will be deployed to fight Amazon deforestation and fires

    Mourão said the country would invoke the same measure that deployed troops to fight forest fires last year, a so-called Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO) decree

    Brazil plans to deploy its armed forces to fight deforestation and fires in the Amazon jungle, Vice President Hamilton Mourão said on Wednesday; in an effort to protect the world’s largest rainforest where destruction has surged since last year.

  • Monday, January 13th 2020 - 09:56 UTC

    Bush fires scorching Australia threaten PM Scott Morrison political survival

    With the Australian bush burning for three months killing 28 people, claiming 2,000 homes and razing millions of acres of land and wildlife, the crisis is becoming increasingly political.

    After weeks of criticism over the handling of the bushfires scorching Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday he will propose a national review into the response to the disaster, as the fires claimed another firefighter's life.

  • Tuesday, January 7th 2020 - 09:40 UTC

    Australia cloud smoke reaches Chile, Argentina and is expected in Uruguay

    The cloud has risen to 6,000m above sea level and there is no meteorological reason for it to fall back to Earth, said Urra. It poses no threat to Chileans.

    The cloud of smoke caused by raging bushfires in Australia has been spotted more than 12,000km away in Chile and Argentina, weather authorities in the South American countries said on Monday. Meteorologists in Uruguay expect the cloud in the next 24 hours.

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