The month of January has represented two faces in Colombia: that of the heroes who have fought to control the forest fires that have managed to consume more than 17,000 hectares, on the other hand there are the wild animals that have died or have had to flee in terror. the voracious fires that burn everything in their path.
In the midst of the complex situations, the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam) warned that February is expected to be the month with the highest temperature, therefore the greatest drought throughout the national territory. In this regard, the Minister of the Environment, Susana Muhamad, commented in the newspaper El Tiempo that until now the country is going through the ‘beginning of the crisis’:
“It must be said clearly that we are just at the beginning of the crisis, which means that it may tend to worsen due to the climatic and vegetation conditions, which are leading us towards two more months of drought.”
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Despite the titanic efforts of the thousands of people who have come to fight the flames and the more than 190,000 gallons of water used, the consequences of the raging fire have been devastating: “These fires have affected more than 230 municipalities in 28 departments, and they have consumed more than 17,782 hectares of vegetation,” Minister Muhamad commented to the aforementioned media.
Regarding the help of the Colombian Aerospace Force (FAC) and the arrival of the Hercules plane to combat the anticipated fires in the country for February, Minister Muhamad commented in the aforementioned media that the aircraft is available but requires adjustments to its discharge tank. limiting its use to flat lands due to the complexity of the mechanism and geographical conditions.
It is noteworthy that in the midst of the strategies used to control the flames, President Gustavo Petro reported that the vehicles of the questioned Mobile Anti-Riot Squadron (Esmad) are being used: “The tanks that Duque bought to repress the young people are now used to put out fires,” the president trilled.
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