Corrientes: extreme heat and droughts generated new sources of fires

Corrientes is under an alert for extreme heat, a condition considered aggravating the complicated picture of rural fires that the province is going through and that is added to a rainfall deficit that will last until March, official sources explained this Thursday.

Maximum temperatures are forecast until next Wednesday between 37 and 40 degrees throughout the north of the province, in what was considered by the National Meteorological Service (SMN) as a red level alert.

The deputy director of Civil Defense of Corrientes, Bruno Lovinson, assured this Thursday that this situation is added to an extreme drought forecast until March, factors that, integrated with human action, represent the main causes of the fires that affect the province and for which The Government announced that it will declare an emergency.

“As an example of the impact of the fires in Corrientes, we can mention that on 19 days in January, the Paso de la Patria volunteer fire station alone had to attend to 200 services, and if we consider that there are 48 stations in the province, the situation is crazy. ”, Lovinson said in dialogue with Télam.

According to the forecasts made for Civil Defense, the lack of rain will last until next March, but with a deficit that adds up to more than five years, said the specialist.

“Corrientes has an average of between 800 and 1,000 millimeters of annual rainfall, but in 2020 the annual total was 200 and in 2021 very similar and in the coming days, of extremely high heat, the forecast indicates that they could precipitate between five and 10 millimeters. in some regions and it is practically nothing, it does not contribute to palliate this situation”, he assured.

Lovinson argued that the situation “is really alarming” because to the heat are added “conditions such as wind and lack of humidity that add three months of extreme levels of fire risk”, and warned that “the main factor of rural fires is human action”.

“95 percent of the fires are intentional, mainly due to the burning of garbage and pastures, as if setting fire to productive fields will later grow better grass and it is not like that, the pasture is of poor quality due to the continuous drought that we suffer,” said the deputy director of Civil Defense.

in Corrientes 1,320 people volunteer at fire stations and, at the same time as the extreme heat season, the province is going through a wave of coronavirus infections that has caused 50 percent of the stations to have had to reduce their operations due to the impact of the pandemic, Lovinson said.

On the other hand, according to records of the Ministry of Production of Corrientes, from the end of December to mid-January, more than 6,000 hectares of forest were burned in the province, the main reason why the Government will decree an emergency.

“That means that the Executive Branch will be able to dispose of extraordinary items to deal with the situation, which are added to a special fund of 30,000,000 pesos formed in December for the hiring of hydrant planes and operating expenses for firefighters,” explained Lovinson.