The Minister of Defense, Javier García, referred to the decision of the Fire Department not to use the Hercules planes, equipped with water boxes, to fight the fires in recent days.
At a press conference during the Todos meeting in La Paloma, García said that the Fire Department’s management “chose not to do it.” He said that on Wednesday morning he contacted the authorities of the National Emergency System to indicate that the Hercules planes were available to help fight the fire. However, around noon the minister was informed that the firefighters would continue working with the helicopters and that at the moment they did not understand it was necessary to add the planes.
In any case, García stressed that the Ministry of Defense is willing to collaborate if necessary.
Firefighters have control the fires that affected La Floresta, Las Vegas and Floresta Station in cannelloni and to bull hill in Maldonadoand perform cooling tasks to complete their tasks.
The national director of Firefighters, Ricardo Riaño, told The Observer this Friday that the fire in the bull hilllocated to the north of the Piriápolis resort, is in “liquidation stage” and affirmed that its extinction is a matter of hours
“Tomorrow (for this Saturday) in the afternoon we will be considering it extinct”Riaño announced, and even maintained that it is possible that this statement “go ahead” if “some promising rain” arrives in the next few hours.
The hierarch indicated that the cooling tasks continue in the place in “some little dots” that stay warm. For this they work three brigades and a technical team from Montevideo by firefighters, along with six machinery and four tanker trucks of the Municipality of Maldonado, informed The Observer the coordinator of the Maldonado Emergency Committee (Cecoed), Mauricio Souza.
