The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Fierce fire in El Bolsón: residents and tourists were evacuated, they say it was intentional and there is a detainee

2023-03-05T23:06:03.801Z


The local fire chief himself said he observed the alleged perpetrator, hooded. The flames are dangerously close to populated areas and spaces where backpackers were staying.


A fire of significant proportions

affected El Bolsón,

for which residents had to be evacuated from their homes and tourists who were staying in surrounding campsites.

Neighbors and members of the Volunteer Fire Department

witnessed how a hooded person started the fire

in a sector of pastures near the campsites, it was learned in the town of Río Negro.

The Río Negro police

arrested the main suspect

in starting the incident.

This is Marcelo Agustín Gallardo (30) residing in the San José neighborhood of El Bolsón, who was made available to the Federal Court for the cause of "

aggravated fire damage"

.

Clarín

consulted provincial sources about the alleged perpetrator of the fire, but details about him or if he is linked to a radicalized Mapuche organization are still unknown.


This Sunday around noon the fire started

on the eastern slope of Loma del Medio

, but as the hours passed it spread to reach more populated areas.

So far,

more than 2 hectares of forests

have been consumed .

Smoke also rises above the sky of the city that still has a good number of visitors when the summer is in its last days.

The flames have continued advancing on the Usina neighborhood and some of the nearby campsites located in semi-rural areas, for which the volunteer firefighters proceeded to

evacuate residents and tourists

.

Some homeowners started wetting the roofs of their homes

early

, but rescuers asked them to prioritize their personal safety while they would take care of protecting the homes.

Before the arrest, there were already clear suspicions that the fire was started by an unknown person who was walking down the hillside with a backpack.

The Chief of the Active Fire Department

of the locality, Jorge Namor, confirmed that he

observed the individual running

.

"I myself saw

a person in black set a fire

, hopefully we catch it first than the police," the expert told El Bolsón News.

“Yes, a person was seen coming up dressed in black running

with a black backpack and a dog

.

If I grab it first, it's better, we are angry because we saw it igniting at the height of the campsites, ”she added. 

And detailed the scenario.

“The fire is advancing fast towards the Usina neighborhood, so we are going to put all the artillery to stop it there, we have the support of firefighters

from Lago Puelo and El Hoyo

.

We are not going to let him advance to the neighborhood, ”he explained.

However, the fire and constant smoke have endangered the inhabitants of the area.

Forest fire in El Bolsón.

video capture

The firefighters evacuated affected residents from the Usina neighborhood and the Cabeza del Indio sector, as well as from most of the campsites in the area, he confirmed.

Although the smoke grows through the urban and semi-rural area of ​​El Bolsón,

Route 40 is still open

.

Two hydrant planes and

SPLIF brigade members, Volunteer Firefighters, SNMF Fighters and Las Golondrinas brigade members

work at the critical points of the forest fire .

Evacuations in El Bolsón

The municipality of El Bolsón, led by Bruno Pogliano, set up

an evacuation center

where residents who had to leave their properties behind are being transferred.

“We are actively working to fight the fire in #ElBolsón.

We have made all the resources available to work on containment and prevent further spread, ”said Governor

Arabela Carreras on her Twitter account

De ella.

"

We condemn the intentionality and imprudence

that caused this fire, which puts nature, people and their property at risk," he indicated in another message, confirming that it was an act of vandalism.

The brigade members asked the residents of the San José, Usina and Loma del Medio neighborhoods to remain alert for the appearance of new outbreaks.

In the Cordillera there are

warm days with some wind

.

In El Bolsón specifically, between 18 and 19 hours about 24 degrees were recorded and with winds of about 13 kilometers per hour.

In the last two months there have been

at least four major fires

in the Cordillera in the province of Chubut in the Los Alerces National Park, El Hoyo and Epuyén.

A fire in El Bolsón that the authorities denounce as intentional.

Photo Twitter

Suspicions

center on members of Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche (RAM),

the radical organization founded nearly a decade ago by the lonko

Facundo Jones Huala

.

The Mapuche reference is housed in Unit 14 of Esquel awaiting his extradition to Chile.

The trans-Andean country has already taken all the steps to transfer it and now the speed of the procedure depends on the government of Alberto Fernández.

Jones Huala, who

declared a war of fire against the Argentine state,

was discovered by the police, after a complaint from a neighbor, in a drunken state in a barbecue area in El Bolsón on January 30.

DS

look also

The ENRE comptroller ordered Edesur to terminate the contract if it cannot return power to users without electricity

Concern over sources of active fires in Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, La Pampa and Chubut

Source: clarin

All life articles on 2023-03-05

You may like

Trends 24h

Life/Entertain 2024-03-28T17:17:20.523Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.