Since March of this year, wildfires have been hitting the Pantanal in Mato Grosso do SulThe Fire Department estimates that the fire has already destroyed 220,000 hectares. The area is equivalent to almost twice the size of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro (120,000 hectares, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics – IBGE).
According to the Fire Department, fires have been fought in two areas over the last few days: in the Serra do Amolar and in Paraguai-Mirim. A task force is working to combat the hotspots. It has the support of two airplanes from the Fire Departments of Mato Grosso and the Federal District, as well as a helicopter from the Mato Grosso do Sul Military Police. In total, about 50 personnel are taking part in the operation, including firefighters, pilots, brigade members, and support staff.
This Saturday (25), the planes found only two fire hotspots in the Serra do Amolar region. They dropped water in the Baía Vermelha region. With the firefighters predicting the extinction of the heat hotspots in these areas, the task force is now expected to move to other critical points in the Paraguai-Mirim region.
In this area, two operating bases are being set up, one at the state school that operates in the community, and on Ilha Verde.
“We have 14 firefighters on the front lines of the fire on Green Island, and water pumps have been set up with 300 meters of hose, using water from the surrounding ponds and seasonal streams,” reported Fire Lieutenant Colonel Waldemir Moreira, head of the Environmental Protection Center of the Mato Grosso do Sul Fire Department and coordinator of the operation in the Pantanal. He noted that aerial water drops are scheduled for the hotspots in the region, just as occurred in the Amolar mountain range.
According to the Fire Department, wildfires have been occurring in the Pantanal since March. The unit points out that during this period, the regions that have been affected normally begin to flood due to the arrival of waters from the headwaters of the Paraguay River, but this year, with low rainfall, these areas remained dry, accumulating biomass, which, combined with high temperatures and human action, has been causing the fires.
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