Part of Argentina’s natural gem is going up in smoke. Firefighters have been battling a fire since Saturday in Los Alerces National Park, in Patagonia, which has already devastated nearly 600 hectares of this UNESCO World Heritage site, reported the official Télam news agency.
In the heart of the southern summer, temperature records of more than 40°C are hitting Argentine Patagonia these days, a usually cold and windy desert region in the far south of the country. The provinces of Chubut and Rio Negro have declared a state of emergency due to the risk of fires until April.
Flames since Thursday evening
Brigadiers and personnel from Chubut province were trying on Saturday to prevent the flames from reaching the neighboring towns of Esquel and Trevelin, about 2,000 km southwest of Buenos Aires. “The fire is out of control,” said Mario Cardenas, head of the fire, communications and emergencies (ICE) department at the 2017 Unesco-listed national park.
The fire broke out Thursday evening and has already burned more than 577 hectares of forest, extending beyond the perimeter of the park, according to the same source. The conditions “are unfavorable because we still have a lot of wind and high temperatures. This makes our work very difficult,” Mario Cardenas said. The fire is located in the Centinela stream area, near Rosales bay, according to the Télam agency.
Many endemic species
On its Instagram account, the Los Alerces National Park indicated that on Friday evening, a drone flew over the area to assess the progress of the fire, and that fire teams from Esquel and Trevelin “are present to protect the towns close to the fire.
Los Alerces Park covers 188,379 ha with a buffer zone of approximately 207,313 ha. Successive glaciations have shaped the region’s landscape and created a variety of spectacular forms, glacial cirques, strings of ponds, clear-water lakes, hanging valleys, roches montagne and U-shaped valleys. It is home to some of the last patches of Patagonian forest in one piece as well as numerous endemic and threatened species of fauna and flora, including the oldest population of alerces or Patagonian cypress, a conifer endemic to South America.