Colombia has already declared red alert for the uptick in forest fires spreading through the South American country that have been stirred up as a consequence of drought brought on by the El Nino phenomenon. The caution is effective for roughly 80 percent of the country.
The Colombian Environment Ministry has noted a rise in temperatures of between three and four degrees Celsius (seven and eight degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the country.
The country has already lost more than 105,000 hectares (260,000 acres) this year as a result of 4,700 forest fires. The fires have been occurring along the Andes mountains.
Colombian security has arrived on the scene in areas including the department of Cudinamarca in central Colombia.
“We are working on this issue. What makes it difficult is the wind direction, which is constantly changing, which forces us to change where our work should be directed,” Alvaro Bocanegra, the colonel overseeing the response, told Colombian outlet, RCN.
Authorities are expecting the problem to continue into 2016.
As a result of the red alert, firemen have been brought onto the scene, along with other rescue agencies via military helicopters to try and put out the fires. Water is being dropped onto the fires.
Residents of the Cudinamarca town of Fuquene recounted their experience of being caught in the area.
“We were working at around 11 am when the fire started, but it was spontaneous, and we didn’t know what was going on or where it was headed, or how (it started),” area resident Ana Margoth Murcia told RCN.
Colombia is considered the country with the second most biological diversity in the world after Brazil with more than 59 million hectares (145 million acres) of forests, composing half its whole territory. (Reuters)