LA PAZ, Oct 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Heavy rain that has drenched eastern
Bolivia’s Chiquitania tropical savanna has put out fires that have ravaged
millions of hectares in recent months, authorities said Sunday.
“It has rained all across Chiquitania. And our satellite no longer shows
any active forest fire,” said Cynthia Asin, the top sustainable development
official in the Santa Cruz region.
Still, she said, firefighters will wait 24 hours to be sure that all fires
are completely out before they head out of the area.
The eastern department of Santa Cruz has been the hardest hit of Bolivia’s
nine departments since the fires began in May and intensified in late August
Bolivia in August enlisted special firefighting planes, a Supertanker
Boeing 747 and a Russian Ilyushin, as well as helicopters, 5,000
firefighters, soldiers and police to combat the blazes.
The fires, which have devastated more than four million hectares (10
million acres) since August, completely destroyed the primary forest
extending over 100 hectares in the Tucavaca reserve in Santa Cruz.
There were no immediate reports on whether fires in other parts of the
country, including Tarija in the south and Cochabamba in the center, were
extinguished.
Environmentalists blame laws enacted under leftist President Evo Morales,
who has encouraged burning of forest and pasture land to expand agricultural
production.
The government attributes the blazes to dry weather and flame-fanning
winds.