BRASILIA, Brazil – Brazilian firefighters were battling a blaze Sunday (Monday Manila time) in Brasilia National Park, a nature reserve located just outside the capital.
The blaze is the biggest Brasilia has seen this year, as the city hits 145 days without rain.
Some 1,200 hectares (4.5 square miles) have burned, according to the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, responsible for the administration of Brazil’s national parks.
It said the blaze would be fought throughout the night in the 30,000 hectare park.
The fire came the same day that Supreme Court Justice Flavio Dino authorized the government to exceed existing spending limits to finance the fight against a “fire pandemic.”
“We cannot deny maximum and effective aid… under the justification of complying with an accounting rule that is not in the Constitution,” said Dino, formerly President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s justice minister.
According to the National Institute for Space Research, 55,517 fires have been recorded in September, up from 46,498 this month last year.
Authorities blame human action for most of the recent fires in the country, which are often linked to agricultural activity.
The situation has been aggravated by the country’s worst drought in seven decades, which experts attribute to climate change.
In recent days smoke has clouded Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as parts of Argentina and Uruguay.
