Rains help put out forest fires in Bolivia

The rains that fell in Bolivia greatly helped the firefighters to put out the forest fires concentrated in the east of the country, according to the report issued by the Deputy Minister of Civil Defense, Juan Carlos Calvimontes.

“The report we have from the monitoring of fires in Santa Cruz [this] is that rain fell and put out fires in the six municipalities where there was fire. For example, the fire in the Amboró natural park was completely put out,” he declared, in contact with the local press.

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Despite efforts, nine forest fires persist in Santa Cruz and one in Yacuiba, Tarija, on the border with Argentina.

The deputy minister also demanded that the Bolivian Congress toughen the penalties against the perpetrators of forest fires, because he considers that the fines currently charged do not exceed 20 cents per damaged hectare.

Civil Defense has deployed 350 forest firefighters and two helicopters equipped with bambi buckets (water bags) in Santa Cruz and Tarija to continue fighting the flames.

In 2019, Bolivia suffered an environmental disaster when forest fires consumed close to six million hectares of forest and grasslands in the Bolivian Amazon.

With information from Sputnik