October 17, 2024, 3:54 PM
October 17, 2024, 3:54 PM
It was the same mayor of San Rafael, Jorge Humberto Vargas, who confirmed that the forest fires in that town were finally put out. Much of this situation is thanks to the advice that the volunteers received from the experts who arrived from Spain who arrived from SAR Navarra.
“Yes, now we can say with certainty that San Rafael is free of fire”Vargas said forcefully.
As the mayor explained, “We have done a job of approximately 20 days with the guidance of two expert firefighters in fire management who have come from Spain to give us guidelines on how to work.
Vargas revealed that they did not know “for certain the time of change of wind, the time of peak temperature and the directions to anchor the fires, to open the gaps, to open towards the scars that were already places where the fire had passed.” .
Thanks to all these factors, they managed to complete the work anticipating that river rainfall was going to fall for two days in a row. “So, all the work was directed to conclude in those two days and it paid off, thank God, We have had quite a lot of active machinery in the area. Six caterpillars, two Kier tractors, two tankers and around eight trucks to move around 90 firefighters that we had on site. All volunteers,” the mayor remarked.
The losses have been substantial
“We have lost pastures, natural pastures, we have lost production, stationary production, which is more of the subsistence of our communities. Everything has been lost and the entire productive base that is practically livestock, agriculture and forestry has been affected. It has been complicated, a very complex situation“, confessed the municipal authority.
According to Vargas, the fire consumed nearly 600,000 hectares. “The entire productive chain has been affected, mainly in livestock farming, in the communities we have a good flow and in the municipality the vast majority are livestock-raising. It is the largest economic productive source, we have around 130 thousand heads, both in communities and in small, medium and large livestock properties.“.
For the mayor, the problem is serious; “If we continue with these incendiary laws, this will continue and will be recurring. We must abolish, we must liquidate these laws to be able to guarantee a healthy life, because we have wasted it for 40 days, 50 days with smoke, breathing poison in our municipality” .
