The Rio Negro and Paysandú fires, which affected 22 thousand hectares this weekend, they are “controlled” but not “extinct”, as he told The Observer the spokesman for the National Fire Department, Pablo Benítez. The rainfall that occurred in the last hours helped control but from Firefighters they assure that “there may still be outbreaks” because it is “a very large area”.
Benítez reported this Monday morning that “there is no active fire in the country”, and they are being carried out cooling jobs in the different large fires that occurred this weekend, in the middle of a heat wave which mainly affected the north of the country.
However, from Firefighters they wait for the hours around noon, when temperatures rise and fires “they intensify, gain strength or restart”, detailed Benítez.
In Río Negro and Paysandú they hope to work one more week to carry out the cooling tasks. Up to now 22,000 hectares were affected, of which there are 15,000 forested hectares, informed The Observer Nelson Ledesma, president of the Society of Forest Producers. The mayor of Paysandú, Nicolás Olivera, confirmed that sections 7 and 12, Río Negro and Paysandú respectively will enter the areas of agricultural emergency, decreed by the Minister of Livestock, Fernando Mattos, this Thursday, December 30.
The Fortín de Santa Rosa, Florida fires and others that occurred in the metropolitan area are controlled.
