BOGOTA —
Firefighters, first responders and Military Forces try to control 31 active forest fires in Colombia, affecting nine departments and Bogotá, while the capital woke up this Thursday surrounded by a cloud of smoke as a result of the flames.
In Bogotá, more than 300 people, including firefighters, first responders and soldiers, were fighting the fire of two forest fires in the eastern hills, a mountain range that runs through the city from south to north.
The first of them has been active for four days, and the second began on Wednesday in an area known as El Cable, a place where the main antennas of radio and television channels are installed, which so far have not been reached by the flames.
Late at night, the Bogotá mayor’s office declared a state of environmental emergency in four locations in the city due to poor air quality as a result of the fires. Bosa, Kennedy, Puente Aranda and Tunjuelito, located in the south and south west of the capital, are the sectors where an emergency was declared.
There are also two other active fires in other parts of the city, in the Quebrada La Vieja, where they are working to fully control it, and another in the vicinity of the Doña Juana landfill, where the fire department keeps the situation under control.
The smoke in the city is affecting air quality and even operations at the El Dorado airport, which is operating with restrictions due to the smoke.
Given the situation, the mayor of Bogotá detailed this Thursday that official and private schools located in towns near the fire zone must resume virtual classes.
The US, Chile, Peru and Canada are going to send aid
The president, Gustavo Petro, who declared on Wednesday the situation of disaster and calamity due to the increase in fires caused by the drought in several areas of the country, activated the protocols to seek international help and on Thursday announced that the United States, Chile, Peru and Canada responded to his request for international help.
“We activate all the protocols to seek international help, to the extent that we know that from now on in these coming days and weeks, crisis events will increase, because we want to be sure that we have the physical capacity to attend to and mitigate them,” Petro said from Tumaco, where he has been in recent days with his entire government team.
“The US, Chile, Peru are the countries that have already responded, and Canada at the last moment, which has enormous experience in putting out fires,” he added.
Colombia faces a time of high temperatures and droughts due to the El Niño phenomenon, which has led the executive to declare 977 municipalities, out of a total of 1,101 in the country, at risk due to the threat of forest fires, which are expected to spread in the next two months, so the The president has also formally requested collaboration from the UN and the European Union disaster management agency.
“The United States stands ready to assist our Colombian allies in combating the ongoing wildfires across the country. We join the Colombian people in mourning the loss of flora, fauna, and property damage, and we commend the brave efforts of Colombian firefighters. and many others to contain and extinguish these fires,” he wrote in his account at X, the United States embassy in Bogotá.
Forests and moors, biodiversity consumed by fire
Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. In recent months, since the beginning of November and as a result of the extreme heat due to El Niño336 forest fires have been recorded in 174 municipalities in the country, affecting 6,618 hectares of vegetation, according to the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (Ungrd).
Due to the fires, the most complicated situation occurs in the Berlin wasteland, a natural complex that is essential to guarantee drinking water service to more than two million people, where the fire has already devastated more than 300 hectares of vegetation. among them thousands of frailejones, a high mountain plant that grows only in these environments and that retains and regulates the water of the rivers that supply the aqueducts.
“We are responding to fires throughout the country with the technical and operational capacity of the National Disaster Risk Management System. It is important to highlight the articulated work that we are doing with the governors and mayors to protect the lives of our communities,” said the deputy director for Disaster Management of the UNGRD, Sneyder Pinilla, about the situation.
Colombia has 50% of the total paramo areas that exist in South America, with a total of three million hectares. The largest is the Sumapaz moor, where the mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Galán, told the media that due to the high temperatures this natural environment is at “imminent risk” of fires.
The Sumapaz moor is a unique ecosystem that supplies 70% of the water to the center of the country.
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