Brazil was deploying military aircraft as part of a “war” against wildfires ravaging the southeastern state of Sao Paulo, with authorities on Sunday warning that arsonists were setting blazes.
Following a crisis meeting of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Cabinet, Brazilian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Marina Silva announced a “war against the fire” and said federal police were investigating the “atypical situation” that has caused extensive damage.
“So far we have not detected any fire caused by lightning, which means there are people starting fires,” Lula said in a video that he posted on social media after meeting with Silva.
Photo: AFP
Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas decreed a state of emergency in 45 municipalities and said two people suspected of starting fires had been arrested.
Lula promised federal assistance to the states in fighting the blazes, saying there were already 3,000 firefighters working nationwide.
With dense smoke drifting across a wide swath of Brazil — even reaching the capital, Brasilia, 720km to the north — several flights were canceled and travel on some roads was halted.
“I stuck my nose out last night at about 7pm and I had a lot of trouble breathing,” 66-year-old retiree Carlos Rodrigues said. “I’ve lived here 32 years and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Two factory workers died on Friday in Urupes, in the northern part of the state, while fighting a fire, officials said.
The military aircraft being deployed include a KC-390 Embraer, a converted troop transport craft that can drop up to 12,000 liters of water on fire zones.
The Embraer was sent to one of the communities most threatened, Ribeirao Preto, a city of 700,000 inhabitants about 300km from Sao Paulo, but Silva said that the plane “was unable to operate because of the amount of smoke.”
“That gives you an idea of the problem,” she said.
Videos posted on social media showed the city plunged into near-darkness by a dense layer of smoke. Some residents have had to evacuate.
“It’s apocalyptic,” a person is heard saying in one video.
Authorities were hoping rains that fell on Sunday would help alleviate the crisis.
Around the region, farm fields have burned and scores of cattle have died. De Freitas said that 10 million reals (US$1.8 million) were being allocated to help farmers who lose crops or livestock.
Amid prolonged drought, Sao Paulo is experiencing its worst month for fires in decades, with 3,480 separate blazes identified, the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research said.
The Brazilian government directly linked the situation to climate change.
“Even the deniers can no longer deny the climate crisis,” Lula wrote on social media. “We have to fight climate change with a lot of intelligence, and with financing from the richest countries that have already destroyed their forests.”
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