Brigadistas de Jujuy, with the help of a hydrant plane sent by the National Government, worked this Friday to contain an active fire source in the Calilegua National Park area, where the flames destroyed more than 130 hectares of the protected area, reported the Minister of the Environment of the province, Maria Ines Zigaran.
The official explained that when the fire started in the Yungas region of Jujuy it had only affected “five hectares” of the Calilegua National Park but, as the days went by and the direction of the winds changed, the flames devastated ” more than 130 hectares of the protected area ”.
In a virtual press conference, Zigaran, specified that the contingency has to do “with the evolution of the igneous process in relation to the winds that are occurring” and this prompted “the fire to jump over the barriers and cut them off” that they had been diagrammed.
The national government, through the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development headed by Juan Cabandie, sent a hydrant plane together with a team of specialists who intervene on the site to control the fire, while it is not ruled out that assistance will be increased.
“Nation informed us that it will manage a second hydrant plane to equip the brigade members and help to abate the fire that is happening in the area,” added the official about the critical fire situation, 106 kilometers from the capital of Jujuy.
Brigade crews from El Brete, San Pedro, Yuto work at the site and staff from National Parks, the Ledesma company, as well as groups of volunteer firefighters from various locations in the region joined in.
For his part, the provincial director of the Forest Fire Brigade, Ezequiel Morales, said: “Today we have only one active fire in the province of Jujuy”, which he considered “the most complicated”, in the Calilegua National Park, and ” they are working to suffocate it, ”he said.
The brigadista expressed that “one hundred percent of the personnel is working”, in front of the line of fire, integrating the teams of El Brete, San Pedro, and Yuto to protect the areas of the protected natural area.
In this context, Morales considered that “the control of the fire is becoming difficult due to the change of constant winds.” In Jujuy, “we have high rates of fire spread, so we cannot neglect ourselves,” he warned.
The fire started on September 18 on a farm belonging to the Ledesma company, a site near the protected area.
