Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Brasilia, Sep 5.- A large fire has consumed 9,500 of 48,000 hectares (almost 20 percent) of the Brasilia National Park, the largest natural reserve in this capital.
The smoke caused by the fire, which emerged since Tuesday morning, spread through the vegetation and could be seen in several regions of the Federal District (DF).
Among the affected areas, there are important water springs for supplying the population.
Fire department agents resumed the fight against the flames this Wednesday.
The suspicion is that the fire was criminal, since three people were seen at the scene, according to the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation. The Federal Police investigates the case.
The park was closed after three ignition sources were identified.
"It was an atypical day. Lowest humidity in history, very high temperature, winds that changed direction every hour," Fábio Miranda, head of the park, told TV Globo.
He considered it to be a very difficult fight. "Possibly, we believe that this fire was intentional because several outbreaks emerged at the same time, which increased the difficulty and cornered our teams," he denounced.
According to firefighters, nine thousand fire calls have been recorded since January. In all of last year, the corporation acted on six thousand notices.
It has not rained for 134 days in Mexico City. The last rain recorded was on April 23. The relative humidity of the air fell to seven percent this Tuesday, at 4:00 p.m. (local time), in the Gama region.
With so many days without rain, the DF faces the greatest drought in the last 14 years, a factor that can aggravate the burn situation in the federal capital. (Text and Photo: PL)
