by he fire in the area of the Centinela stream, near Rosales Bay of Lake Futalafquen in the Los Alerces National Park, is Chubut, continued to be active “out of control” this Saturday and will extend to reach an area of 577 hectares.
So I confirmed it Telam the head of the Fire, Communications and Emergency (ICE) department of the National Park, Mario Cárdenas.
Meanwhile, brigade members and personnel from the provincial Fire Management Service struggled to control the flames and protect nearby populations in Esquel and Trevelin.
“The fire spread to an area of 577 hectares and the head of the fire left the jurisdiction of the Park and entered the province,” Cárdenas added.
“The fire is out of control,” said Cárdenas, who specified that the weather conditions “They are adversaries because we continue to have a lot of wind and high temperatures, which makes our tasks quite difficult” in the National Park, declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 2017.
The fire started on Thursday night, with two fires very close to each other. The spread of the fire caused both to join, becoming a single fire that went from affecting 65 hectares of native forest to 577 hectares and expanding continues.
“They are reinforcing and putting a lot of work into the right flank of the fire because that is where, if it came down from the mountain towards the road, there are homes, towns“said the head of ICE about the fire, which consumed native forest and burned species such as ñire, laura, cohiue cane and lenga.
According to the Park’s Instagram account, during the day on Friday, personnel from the Provincial Fire Management Service based in the town of Golondrinas join the firefighting work.
Personnel from National Parks, Chubut Provincial Fire Management Service, National Fire Management Service, Volunteer Firefighters, Gendarmerie, Prefecture, Esquel Civil Defense are also working in the operation.
During Friday night, it was reported that A drone flew over the fire to evaluate the behavior of the fire.
In turn, Park staff explained that “the fire crews from the towns of Esquel and Trevelin are present protecting the towns near the fire.”
This Saturday, in addition, the Undersecretary of Environment of the Nation and the National Fire Management Service reported that it added 60 brigade members to the operation and that contributed Cessna 182 observer plane to optimize the evaluation of the different sectors of the fire. It is added to the four aerial means already available, two helicopters, a Bell 407 and a Bell 412 – suitable for working with a bucket and transporting personnel to difficult-to-access areas – and two AT-802 turboprop aircraft with 3,000 liters of water discharge capacity.
Also, remember to take “Ultimate caution when traveling Route 71” and it was reported that the internal roads of Cerro La Torta, El Dedal, Alto El Petiso, Cocinero, Quebrada del León and La Balsa are located.
Also remember the prohibition of lighting fires in free use areas, stay attentive to the indications within the Protected Area and recommend choosing another day to visit the Park.
This Saturday the Municipality of Esquel had planned to hold the “La Zeta Picnic” event, in the area of the La Zeta Urban Natural Reserve, with various activities for residents and tourists, but it was suspended due to the fire.
They issued an orange alert for heat in the area
The National Weather Service issued a series of heat alerts for much of Buenos Aires and seven other provinces. he Orange alert It also affects a part of Mendoza, northern Neuquén, northern Río Negro and Chubut, where the Los Alerces National Park is located.
The rest of the province of Buenos Aires, like San Juan, Mendoza, most of La Pampa, San Luis, Río Negro and Chubut, will register high temperatures for which the SMN reported a yellow alertreferring to the fact that it is a heat that can be dangerous “for risk groups, such as children, people over 65 years of age or those with chronic diseases.”
The highest temperatures in the country In the next few hours they will be registered in the area that unites northeast of Neuquén, northwest of Río Negro and west of La Pampa. These areas will be exposed to “very dangerous” temperatures that, according to the same SMN red alert, “can affect all people, even healthy ones.”
