Nearly 700 Wildfires Spread Across Amazon

www.grandforks.com Posted on Sun, Mar. 16, 2003 Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Nearly 700 wildfires fueled by dry conditions and high winds burned out of control in Brazil's Amazon jungle Sunday despite stepped-up efforts to battle the blazes.

The number of fires burning across the state of Roraima, which borders Venezuela and Guyana, more than doubled to 686 on Sunday, according to satellite monitoring by Brazil's environmental protection agency Ibama.

"Our fight against the fires is intensifying each day, but it's very dry and very windy up here," Ibama spokeswoman Monica Gil told The Associated Press from Roraima.

Ibama said it could not give an accurate estimate of the damaged or destroyed areas until the fires are extinguished. But early last week, when only 86 fires were recorded, 25,600 acres of forest and scrub land had burned.

The fires were sparked by farmers clearing agricultural land, and quickly got out of control because of extremely dry conditions caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, an unusual warming of parts of the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

About 330 firefighters and Ibama officials were fighting the blazes, along with three helicopters and army transport vehicles, Gil said. Another 92 firefighters were expected Monday.

The fires raged at the entrance of the Yanomami Indian reservation, home to the world's largest Stone Age tribe. On Friday, fires crossed about 2 miles into the reservation, Environment Minister Marina Silva said.

About 26,000 Yanomami live on a 25 million-acre reservation straddling the border of Brazil and Venezuela.

Meteorologists say rain is not likely for another week.

In 1998, severe dryness from El Nino led to wildfires in Roraima that burned 736,000 acres of forest and scrub. The fires eventually were extinguished by rain.