The number is 1,00% higher than that recorded during the same period last year in the state. Between January and July, more than 2,000 fires have already been reported.
Residents of the Cidade do Povo Housing Estate, in the Second District of Rio Branco, were frightened by a large-scale fire in a forested area on Friday night (17). Firefighters were called twice to fight it. Yet another occurrence of fires among the many that the battalion has attended to.
As of July 15, 364 fires similar to this one had already been reported in the state. This figure is 101% higher than the number recorded during the same period last year, when 181 urban wildfires were reported. The information comes from the Acre Fire Department.
Regarding the overall numbers of incidents attended to from January until the 15th of last month, Major Cláudio Falcão, from the fire department's press office, explained that more than 2,000 fires have already been recorded.
In 2019, the number was 1,003,000. “We’ve seen a 1,00% increase in wildfires in 2020 through July 15,” he added.
Falcão also noted that the agencies responsible for preventing and fighting fires are working to prevent incidents and raise public awareness. According to him, 99% of the fires are intentional and caused by vandalism.
“It is almost recurring for firefighters to attend to the same incident more than once on the same day or on alternate days, but that also happens. I emphasize the effort of all agencies, the Environmental Battalion, firefighters, and the other inspection and control agencies in fighting [the fires], and even so we have a quite large and extensive situation regarding urban environmental fires,” he highlighted.
Incidents
Regarding the incident in the housing estate, Falcão revealed that the region of the 2nd District of Rio Branco includes areas with heavy vegetation, which facilitates environmental fires.
“It's difficult for us to identify a specific environmental fire because in that region of the 2nd District, which includes Cidade do Povo, Rosalinda, Santa Inês, and other adjacent neighborhoods, they are prone to fires because there are large areas of vegetation. What catches our attention is that we had gone to this environmental fire in Cidade do Povo earlier, where it was fought and, in the absence of the firefighters, after the incident was handled, it happened again,” he stated.
On this Saturday morning (18), a brush fire was reported in vegetation on Ceará Avenue.
SOURCE:
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