QUITO (Reuters) – A raging wildfire stuffed Ecuador’s capital of Quito with smoke and threatened properties on Tuesday as authorities rushed to regulate the blaze at a time when a historic drought has stretched assets and endurance.
President Daniel Noboa mentioned the armed forces had been deployed to struggle the hearth, which began round noon within the bohemian Guapulo neighborhood and progressively unfold to close by residences and forested areas.
Some tearful residents labored desperately to place out flames, in response to a Reuters witness.
“We could not rescue something. We simply arrived, we did not know what to do … I do not know why that is occurring to us,” mentioned Guapulo resident Rosana Cepeda.
No deaths or critical accidents have been reported.
Quito’s firefighting power mentioned its contingents have been absolutely deployed and that its items could be combating fires all through the night time.
“The hearth is not going to finish within the subsequent few hours. It can absolutely proceed into the night time,” Mayor Pabel Munoz advised the press, including that falling nighttime temperatures ought to assist efforts to regulate the blaze.
Ecuador’s worst drought in over 60 years has plunged the hydropower-dependent nation into an vitality disaster as diminished reservoirs go away hydroelectric dams offline.
The nation’s vitality minister introduced nationwide 12-hour energy cuts on Monday and mentioned the nation’s dry season began two months early.
Energy cuts scheduled for Tuesday have been suspended for the protection space of Electrica Quito, the capital metropolis’s electrical utility, the corporate mentioned on social media.