More than 80 volunteer firefighters who have the contribution of two fire hydrants and four helicopters continued this Wednesday morning, for the fourth consecutive day, with the tasks to fight the forest fire in the mountain area of the Ernesto Tornquist Provincial Park.
This is a fire that started on Sunday afternoon due to a lightning strike between Mount Ventana and Mount Bahía Blanca, in the provincial park located on Provincial Route 76.
More than 80 firefighters from different barracks in the southern region of Buenos Aires continue to work at the site, along with the support of road machinery and two hydrant planes from the National Fire Management Plan together with the contribution of four helicopters from the Ministry of Safety of the province of Buenos Aires that use helibaldes and also allow the transfer of personnel.
“Everything is already organized, the helicopters are going to leave, first brigade members are going to go up to the sector where they are going to work and the fire has lowered its intensity, it is not burning trees such as pines or broom but rather low grass, an opportunity to attack it and if it can appease it to a large extent or extinguish it,” Ezequiel Gabella told TélamSecretary of Government and Security of the municipality of Tornquist.
The official, who was at the “Las Vertientes” ranch, the helicopter operations base and close to the provincial park, added that “first the brigade members will go and then the helicopters with helibaldes will fire the shots to work in a canyon in the southwestern sector of the Cerro Ventana, which is the main focus and is active”.
“We are all optimistic that it could become an important day in being able to finish extinguishing the fire and if the weather accompanies”he claimed.
Also, and within the framework of the operations arranged, the communal authorities together with police personnel will proceed to carry out intermittent cuts on provincial route 76 that connects Tornquist with Villa Ventana and Sierra de la Ventana.
As indicated by the commune, the cuts will be made so that the helicopters with the helibaldes “can be resupplied with water through tanker trucks or fire trucks on the shoulder.”
“We established a criterion that implies that people can pass but warning that if there was a deployment of firefighters or machinery on the route, it should be cut while that lasts,” Gabella commented.
Regarding the weather forecast and the probability of rain for the next few hours in the area, the official indicated that “there is talk of a 70% possibility of rain but with little millimeter.”
