The national government, in coordination with provincial authorities, deployed a series of measures to respond to the emergency caused by the advance of the flames in Corrientes, by sending firefighters, heavy machinery, helicopters and hydrant planes, which seek to contain the fires. forests and extinguish them.
The assistance is provided by the Ministries of Environment and Sustainable Development, Defense and Security, and is coordinated by the Operational Center of the National Fire Management Service (SNMF), the Casa Rosada reported today.
In this way, brigade members, heavy machinery, helicopters and hydrant planes were sent to the area affected by the flames to contain the fire and extinguish it.
In addition, as indicated by the Ministry of Defense, more than 100 troops are in the area of the fires who collaborate with the brigade members who work to combat the flames.
The Army and the Air Force, for their part, provided a plane, a helicopter, radio and satellite equipment, trailers, tanks to transport water and pools to store it, the official report said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development supervises the tasks carried out in the emergency operations command, located in the town of San Miguel, where there are 150 brigade members and 15 vehicles: fire trucks, support mobiles and a SNMF operational truck, in addition to helicopters, equipment and heavy machinery.
The Ministry of Security of the Nation, for its part, ordered the deployment of brigade members of the Argentine Federal Police, equipment and a helicopter for the transfer of personnel.
“When you talk about #Climate change We are not talking about an entelechy or something that is going to happen at some point, but about something that is happening at this moment”
? @sfederovisky on @radionationalAR #EnvironmentalActionIsNow#ArgentinaUnited pic.twitter.com/csEDhs6KI8
— Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (@AmbienteNacion) February 18, 2022
In turn, members of the National Gendarmerie work in the area to order traffic on national routes that are affected by the fires.
To combat the fires, 11 air resources were arranged, including four hydrant planes, an observer plane and three helicopters.
In this framework, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Julián Domínguez, and the Deputy Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Nation, Jorge Neme, will travel to Corrientes tomorrow at 8 a.m. to strengthen the actions of the National Government, articulate together with the authorities provinces the response to the emergency caused by the fires and establish a set of aid measures in the face of the situation generated by the fires.
While the deployment of resources and mitigation tasks are intensifying, the national and provincial authorities explained that the drought, high temperatures and some logistical difficulties are interfering with the process of fighting the fires.
Meanwhile, the meteorological satellites revealed that a rainy front is only expected for Monday that will last for a few days.
The data provided by national and provincial authorities revealed that 785,238 hectares had been burned until Saturday, which represents 9% of the surface of the provincial territory.
Likewise, 17 active fire sources are registered and economic losses are estimated at 20,000 million pesos, it was officially reported.
A study by the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) reported that the rate of fire progression between February 7 and 16 was almost 30,000 hectares per day.
The INTA survey highlighted, in this sense, that the fires consumed 408,846 hectares of weeds, estuaries and other wetlands; 31,265 hectares of cultivated forests and more than 28,000 of native forests.
The Corrientes departments most affected by the fires are Ituzaingó, with 138,100 hectares; San Miguel, with 93,713; and Santo Tomé, with 81,705 hectares.
The study carried out by INTA, released yesterday by this agency, reported that “in absolute values, the most affected vegetation cover are the estuaries (and other wetlands) where the area doubled, going from 124 thousand hectares to more than 245 thousand” .
That report stated that “cultivated forests were also greatly affected, since the burned area increased almost two and a half times, going from 12,000 to more than 31,000 hectares.”
The survey highlighted that the satellite evidence indicates that the fires consumed 408,846 thousand hectares of weeds, estuaries and other wetlands; 31,265 hectares of cultivated forests and more than 28 thousand of native forests.
#FireManagement ? From the national State we accompany all provinces in fire fighting.
The prevention, combat and extinction of fires is a State policy.#ArgentinaUnited#EnvironmentalActionIsNow pic.twitter.com/zyqGYqJ1aY
— Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (@AmbienteNacion) February 17, 2022
