Sun 25 August 2019:
Hundreds of new fires are raging in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, according to official data, as six of the nine states in the region requested military assistance to combat the record blazes.
The states of Para, Rondonia, Roraima, Tocantins, Acre and Mato Grosso requested the army’s help, Environment Minister Ricardo Sallesannounced on Saturday, one day after President Jair Bolsonaro authorised the military to step in.
Data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said some 1,663 new fires were ignited between Thursday and Friday. More than 1,200 of those fires were in the Amazon region.
Official figures recorded 78,383 forest fires in Brazil this year, an 84 percent rise over last year’s figure. More than half of those were in the Amazon region.
Environmentalists have said farmers clearing land for pasture were responsible for the uptick in fires.
Some 44,000 troops will be available for “unprecedented” operations to put out the fires, Defence Minister Fernando Azevedo said.
He added that the military’s first mission will be the deployment of 700 troops to the area around Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia, where the military will use two C-130 Hercules aircraft capable of dumping up to 12,000 litres of water on fires per journey.
On Friday, multiple fires were seen were raging across a vast area of Rondonia, billowing huge plumes of smoke into the air, AFP news agency reported.
Several residents of Porto Velho said what appeared to be light clouds hanging over the city of half a million people was actually smoke from the blazes.
The Brazilian military operations came after widespread criticism of Bolsonaro’s handling of the crisis.
Azevedo defended the government response, saying that it was “very fast”.
“It shows the concern of Bolsonaro’s government about this issue,” he said.
The defence minister noted US President Trump’s offer, on Twitter, to help Brazil fight the fires but said there had been no further contact on the matter.
“Any help is welcome in respect to the fires,” he added.
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