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Complicated summer: in La Matanza there are between 6 and 10 forest fires per day

2023-01-23T21:38:15.789Z


It was warned by a chief of the Volunteer Firefighters after two serious cases in Ciudad Evita and Virrey del Pino. How they are generated and what care they require.


A few days after a major fire that, for almost three days, consumed more than 100 hectares of forest and pasture in Ciudad Evita;

and of a similar case in a forest in Virrey del Pino, another town in La Matanza, the volunteer firefighters of that municipality reported that in this summer of high temperatures and drought,

"between 6 and 10 forest accidents per day" have been recorded.

This was stated by the deputy chief of the La Matanza Volunteer Fire brigade, Daniel Bodego, on a local radio station.

According to him, he highlighted, in the first 16 days of 2023, the firefighters had to go to "more than 200 services."

“Regarding the forest fires, without a doubt the one that took place in the Nature Reserve was the first of great magnitude.

In the towns of Gregorio de Laferrere, González Catán and Virrey del Pino, they occur every day: they are not very large because they are controlled immediately, but we have between six and ten forest fires a day, and sometimes even more," Bodego warned in dialogue with Radio Universidad, the signal of the National University of La Matanza (UNLaM).

According to the firefighters, in González Catán, Laferrere and Virrey del Pino there are sources of fire "every day."

The high temperatures and the drought that affects a large part of the country and also the entire metropolitan area of ​​Buenos Aires are two of the main causes of this atypical and risky season in the largest municipality in the country, difficult to cover and with large open fields .

But climate issues are not the only factors, nor are they even the most decisive.

Simply, they generate environmental conditions that make another variable much more dangerous: the carelessness of people.

According to the fire chief, although "it is difficult" to avoid this type of fire in times of "high temperatures and drought", he considered that basic precautions can be taken, such as avoiding throwing waste in these green spaces: "that can help", assured.

Burnt trees in the Ciudad Evita ecological reserve: the fire started on January 13 and took almost three days to control.

“We recommend that people not throw more garbage in these places, because we find all kinds of waste.

With high temperatures, for example, a piece of glass can reflect and set the grass on fire, ”he explained.

The subcommander mentioned another custom that is probably much more dangerous: the burning of garbage in these wide open spaces.

Most of the time it is these "uncontrolled fires" that end up requiring the intervention of the fire brigade to extinguish the flames.

"We ask the citizens for awareness, because we must take care of the spaces together," requested Bodego In fact, although due to the magnitude of the fire in Ciudad Evita, it was not possible to establish how the first source of fire was generated, the neighbors from the reserve area they assure that he left when someone set some pallets on fire.

The wind that blew on the morning of that Friday, January 13, added to the heat and drought, made the situation become uncontrollable in a few minutes.

More than 50 firefighters, from 12 crews, worked for almost three days to be able to extinguish the fire: initially, an official statement from the Volunteers estimated that the fire had affected some 600 hectares, but later the Municipality clarified that this figure was inaccurate and that the sector exposed to the fire was just over 100, and that not everything there was consumed by the flames.

Most of the trees that burned in Ciudad Evita had been planted in 1055, in a forest plan for the site.

Beyond the numbers, the truth is that numerous trees planted in 1955 were lost as part of a forestation plan to restore a necessary lung for the area's wetlands and dispel the fog that occurred on Provincial Route 21, bordering the reserve.


These are specimens of non-native species, such as pines and eucalyptus -among others- at the time chosen because they grow fast.

However, a few years ago the Municipality, in collaboration with the residents of RENACER, have been adding native trees to the area to

maintain the authenticity of the landscape.


In addition, it was found that many animals died, such as hares, guinea pigs, frogs, camuatíes (wasps) and some birds, according to members of RENACER, the neighborhood organization that was in the place hours after the fire was controlled.

Fire in Virrey del Pino

On Sunday the 16th, when "ash guards" were still being held in Ciudad Evita to ensure that the flames, which were already virtually controlled, would not reignite again, there was another major fire in La Matanza.

At approximately 2:00 p.m. that day, a forest fire started in the Esperanza neighborhood of Virrey del Pino.

It was at kilometer 38 of Route 3, in a sector known as the "last green lung."

A significant number of trees and vegetation were burned there.

It took the firefighters, who went with three crews to the scene, about four hours to control the situation.

The fire in "the last green lung of Virrey del Pino" on January 16 (Photo: El 1 Digital).

As residents of the area explained to El 1 Digital, the cause of the fire would have been poorly extinguished embers.

When some approached to try to put out the fire, a man approached and told them: "It was for five choris, I saw that they threw the coals there."

To give peace of mind.

The fire chief assured that after a difficult stage for the Volunteers, they are currently well prepared to act in the face of the situation that occurs this summer.

“After having gone through very difficult years, we are moving forward thanks to the efforts made by the Board of Directors.

With the incorporation of new equipment and mobile phones, they have helped us a lot to be able to continue with our task”, assured Bodego.

In 2020, the firefighters of La Matanza came to put their headquarters up for sale to raise funds and face a million-dollar debt that they dragged due to mismanagement from 20 to 30 years ago.

A debt with the AFIP practically put operations at risk.

After some twists and turns, a table was finally formed with the municipality, the province and the national tax authority to resolve the situation and -especially- seek to make the activity of the body sustainable.

A project to preserve the reserve

After the fire on the second weekend of January that burned trees and pastures in a large sector of the Ciudad Evita Ecological Reserve, the neighborhood association that seeks to protect it came out to report that there is a new plan to preserve the place, with the idea of ​​making it public and thus giving it impetus.

This is an initiative coordinated by the Municipality of La Matanza, the Matanza Riachuelo Basin Authority (ACUMAR) and the government of the City of Buenos Aires -to whom the lands belong- to preserve the wetland area and declare it a "Natural Area Protected", in a similar way to what happens in Los Robles de Moreno Municipal Park.

The intention is to value the place with

trails, an interpretation center, high-altitude walkways

(where the water prevents the passage) and raise awareness among all visitors with guided tours by park rangers in the middle of the Pampas grasslands and the flora and fauna that live in this place.

It followed her and the high temperatures, added to the carelessness of those who burn garbage, are the most frequent causes of fires, according to the La Matanza firefighters.

In the municipality they confirmed that they are advancing in that direction.

"The project exists, it is an initiative of the Municipality in coordination with ACUMAR, through a dialogue table with the community and neighborhood organizations that have been working for a long time on the property at the initiative of Mayor Fernando Espinoza," they assured.

They also explained that since the land belongs to the City Housing Institute (IVC), "the ok of use is needed to convert it into a reserve."

"We have been working among all the intuitions named so that the project comes out and give continuity to what has been done by the local government for years, which managed to get the already existing Reserve project approved in the HCD in 2015," they concluded. .

Burned animal skeletons, in one of the photos released by the firefighters after controlling the fire in the Ciudad Evita ecological reserve.

“Yes, we are on the subject and articulating with La Matanza and Ciudad;

but equally there is still no project advancing”, they confirmed from ACUMAR. 

There is a precedent, when in 2020 a bill entered the Buenos Aires legislature to protect the place, something that, according to the neighborhood association, "could not advance as expected."

Now, the fire gives strength to a new attempt.

Currently, in addition, from the RENACER neighborhood group, which for years has been seeking to preserve the place and is one of the entities that organizes activities there and participates in the design of the new plan, they are collecting signatures on the Change.org online platform so

that build a Volunteer Fire Station

in Ciudad Evita, near the reserve.

They aim for help to reach the usual sources of fire that occur in this ecosystem faster, often due to burning garbage or -they explain- attempts to usurp land.

The one that began on Friday the 13th in the morning was out of the ordinary and reached unprecedented proportions.

look too

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Source: clarin

All news articles on 2023-01-23

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