After Patagonia, fires rip through northeast Argentina

Wildfires have consumed up to 250,000 hectares of land in northeast Argentina since January, local officials said Tuesday as firefighters continue to battle blazes in the remote southern region of Patagonia.

The fires in the northeastern province of Corrientes have consumed an area the size of Vancouver Island that is covered in farmland and pine forests, according to figures provided by the Asociación de Sociedades Rurales de Corrientes (Association of Rural Communities of Corrientes, ASRC).

A 30-year-old teacher died of the burns she sustained on February 4 while trying to stop the flames engulfing her father's field in the village of Mariano I. Loza, the local mayor said at the weekend.

The area is parched by a drought and intense heat, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius in recent days.

The Greenpeace NGO however also pointed a finger at illegal logging.

Patagonia, a region famous for its jagged Andean peaks and expansive grasslands, is meanwhile enduring its worst wildfire season in three decades, according to Greenpeace Argentina.

The largest fire currently is in Lanín National Park, situated around 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of the city of San Martín de los Andes.

Further south, a major fire was still advancing in the tourist town of El Bolsón, situated in a valley dotted with fruit orchards, where an 80-year-old man died in early February from smoke inhalation.

"We are exhausted," Alejandro Namor, the city's fire chief, told AFP on Tuesday.

More than 120 houses have been gutted by the fire over the past two weeks and a thousand families have been evacuated.

Authorities suspect arson.

In an interview with AM 1350 radio, Namor said that residential areas were now out of danger but that extinguishing the flames in wooded areas could take up until "March or April."

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich and and Defence Minister Luis Petri announced the creation of a Federal Emergency Agency during a visit Tuesday to the area.

– TIMES/AFP