Smoke from forest fires spreads across South American countries

Smoke from raging fires in the Amazon rainforest and other areas has spread to major cities in Brazil, as well as neighboring Argentina and Uruguay, Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said on September 9.

Fires that have been burning for months in the Amazon region of Brazil as well as in Bolivia and Paraguay continue to spread and are out of control.

Smoke from the fires has begun to affect major cities like Sao Paulo, where pollution levels were among the highest in the world on September 9.

The Swiss-based air quality monitoring company IQAir said the fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) index in Latin America's largest city reached 69 micrograms per cubic meter, 14 times higher than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The situation is also very worrying in the coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, where the fine dust index is also very high at 26 micrograms/m3, five times higher than the WHO's recommended level.

Brazilian health experts have reported that in recent days the number of people suffering from respiratory diseases such as asthma, pneumonia or sinusitis has increased sharply in many Brazilian cities.

A thick gray cloud of smoke is currently enveloping the Andes Mountains south of the American continent as winds blow fires from Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Meanwhile, the governments of Uruguay and Argentina also warned people on the same day about smoke from forest fires spreading from neighboring countries.

Nearly 5 million square kilometers of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina are now covered in smoke. The smoke is also spreading to the South Atlantic Ocean.

The number of forest fires in the Amazon since the beginning of the year has nearly doubled compared to the same period in 2023.

Up to now, there are still nearly 3,700 areas with forest fires in this country, of which 50% are in the Amazon region - the world's largest tropical forest.

Other areas of Brazil are also suffering from large forest fires due to prolonged drought, such as Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, 250km north of the capital Brasilia, where more than 10,000 hectares of forest have been burned in recent days.

Authorities in 13 provinces in northern and central Argentina have declared a state of alarm due to smoke, which has significantly affected visibility.

In the capital Buenos Aires, many areas of smoke also appeared during the day and this situation will improve only after September 12 when a cold air mass flows in from the Patagonia region in the South.

In Bolivia, the government declared a national emergency on September 7 due to wildfires that broke out in 10 regions in the central province of Santa Cruz and the northern provinces of Beni and Pando. The fires stretched for up to 30 kilometers. The fires burned more than 3.8 million hectares of grassland and natural forest.

The Bolivian government has chartered planes to drop water and chemicals to stop the spread of the wildfires and minimize damage. Five airports have been closed because of poor visibility due to smoke.

Forest fires in the border area of ​​Bolivia and Paraguay have burned 84,000 hectares of primary forest in Paraguay.

The head of the National Emergency Service (SEN), Arsenio Zárate, said the fires were under control but not yet completely extinguished. The army was mobilized with a lot of equipment to control the forest fires.