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Large fire Brazilian Amazon put out after a week |
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| BRAZIL: March 10, 2003 | ||
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BRASILIA, Brazil - The largest forest fire in the Brazilian Amazon's main state in two decades has been put out after destroying 90 square miles (240 sq km) of tropical jungle, environmental agency Ibama said.
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Firefighters fought the blaze in a remote corner of the world's biggest tropical forest for a week before it was put out with the help of some rain in recent days, said executive manager Jose Leland of Ibama in the state of Amazonas. He said the fire was probably caused by the campfire of fishermen or loggers and exacerbated by extremely dry conditions. There were no known human casualties. "In the state of Amazonas this is a significant fire," Leland told Reuters from the state's capital, Manaus. "I don't think there has been something like it in 20 years." Up to 30 percent of the world's animal and plant species are found nowhere but in the Amazon, a 1.54 million square miles (4.1 million sq km) area - larger than western Europe. Scientists warn its rate of destruction - about 6,000 square miles (16,000 sq km) a year - poses serious threats not just through lost species but by reducing production of oxygen and unpredictable consequences for regional weather patterns. More than 50 firemen and an army helicopter fought the fire which started after there had been no rain in the region of Barcelos in the western Amazon, not far from the Venezuelan border, for 75 days. Fires are a major cause behind the destruction of the Amazon and they tend to burn along the "arc of deforestation," or the Amazon's outer edges. There, fires used in slash-and-burn farming often get out of control.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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