About thirty forest fires active in Colombia

In total 31 forest fire They are active this Thursday at Colombia and affecting nine departments and Bogotá, where a state of emergency remains due to fires on two hills, the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (Ungrd) reported this Thursday.

Those of the eastern hills are the most worrisome Cable from Bogotaas the smoke spreads over a large part of the capital and affects air quality and air operations, as well as fires Nemocón (Cundinamarca) or Berlin Swamp (Santander)which is part of the Saturbán paramero complex, necessary for the drinking water supply of northeastern Colombia.

The north and center of the country are the areas most affected by fires, caused by the phenomenon fires Boy which keeps a good part of the country without rain and high temperatures, and which stretches through Huila, Santander, Boyacá, Bolívar, Cesar, Cundinamarca, Antioquia, La Guajira and Norte de Santander.

According to Ungrd data, in addition to 31 active fires, nine more have already been contained in the departments Vichada, Santander, Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Tolima and Carmen de Apicalá.

Although the fires are attributed to the El Niño phenomenon, in recent hours there have been complaints and even arrests of people allegedly deliberately setting fires in mountainous areas.

“Security cameras in Santander recorded that one of the fires was caused by a man who set the hill on fire. Human and criminal hands are causing this accident!”, pro-government senator María José Pizarro condemned in X.

Four days of fire in Bogota

The capital woke up this Thursday once again to the smoke of two fires on its characteristic hills, the first of which has been active for four days.

More than 300 soldiers are working to put out the flames, and aerial water drops have been activated again, as work on the ground is complicated by steep hills that are difficult to access.

In addition, the airport Golden operating with limitations due to thick fog mixed with smoke making air operations difficult, although Civil aviation He has already warned that visibility conditions have “improved significantly” and that smoke accounts for only 30 percent.

Mayor of Bogota, Carlos Galanhe described today that the second fire, the one that broke out yesterday in Cerro El Cable, was “the most complex” because the winds had taken a lot and split the fire on two sides, but he calmed down by saying that the fire did not pass through the road that separates the hill from the houses closest to the hill .

On top of the hill Wire The transmitting antennas of radio stations and television channels have been installed and have not suffered any damage so far.

fire in the voids

The most worrying situation from an ecological point of view is the situation with wetlands like the one in Berlin, where the fire has already destroyed thousands of frailejons, the typical vegetation of these landscapes that are “natural water factories” that help regulate water flows and supply springs that later serve to supply municipalities and cities .

The Berlin Marshes caught fire on Tuesday, and the fire has already destroyed more than 300 hectares of vegetation, according to the director of the Regional Autonomous Corporation for the Bucaramanga Plateau, Juan Carlos Reyes. Of these, 40 hectares are frailejones.

Although it was announced yesterday that the fire was brought under control, this morning the mayor of Bucaramanga, the capital of Santander – the department in which the fire is located -, Jaime Andrés Beltránannounced that “due to strong winds” the two areas that were controlled yesterday were reactivated.

Institutional response

The government and local authorities are focused on this emergency, and the Colombian president, Gustavo Petroreported yesterday that he would request international assistance in fighting the fires.

“All the equipment of the Air Force is being used to put out fires in dozens of places in the country, but the prediction of Ideas (meteorological institute) says that the warming crisis will spread throughout February and part of March. For this reason, I ordered the activation of international aid protocols,” he said. president this Wednesday on his X account.

Galán, who has been in office for 25 days, has also contacted several countries, including Spain, United States and Chileget help against fire.