Patagonia: due to a fire on a hill in the area of El Hoyo, 58 people had to evacuate

The fierce forest fire broke out yesterday on the Currumahuida hill, belonging to the province of Chubut, and affected a house and caused the evacuation of 58 people in the populated area, after the orange alert was declared. For prevention, the fire emergency was declared through Resolution 128/23, which asks the population not to circulate “if it is not necessary”, not to congest the roads and to respect the indications of the Civil Defense personnel. The focus of the fire is in the area of the Vineyards and in the vicinity of the Labyrinth of El Hoyo. Due to the dryness of the terrain, the flames quickly climbed up the mountainside, which caused the column of smoke to be seen from neighboring towns, such as El Bolsón.  President Alberto Fernández communicated today with the mayor of the Chubut town of El Hoyo, Pol Huisman, to express his support for the fire that has affected Currumahuida hill since yesterday, local authorities reported today. “Whatever you need, count on me,” Fernandez assured the mayor of Chubut, who said that at the moment the loss of a house in the area of El Sauzal was registered, it was reported from the official website of the commune. The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, through the National Fire Management Service (SNMF), confirmed that two hydrant planes, an amphibious and a helicopter with helibalde are operational, which will be accompanied during the day by the work of the Boeing Chinook helicopter -with a shooting capacity of 10 thousand liters of water-, which was transferred to the Esquel base for this purpose. During the day yesterday, the resources were dedicated to controlling the fronts in the area of El Sauzal “so that the fire does not reach the houses,” according to the Municipal Emergency Committee of El Hoyo. We are caring for and defending populated areas. Until today at dawn we were touring the area of the vineyards, the area of El Sauzal and everything that can become a threat to the urban area, “said today the mayor of El Hoyo, Pol Huisman.After the meeting with the Emergency Committee Huisman thanked the firefighters who were working in the area and protecting each of the houses. “So far none has caught fire just because of this work,” Huisman said. In the affected areas, a total of 135 brigades of the Provincial Fire Management Service of the bases of Golondrinas, Epuyén, Lago Puelo, El Maitén, Puerto Patriada, Cholila and the National Brigade are fighting the fire, with the support of National Roads, Police Station and Volunteer Firefighters of El Hoyo and Epuyén. In addition, 45 forest fighters from the National Brigade South and National Parks provide support in the jurisdiction.They also collaborate assisting the population personnel of the local Traffic and Civil Protection Directorate, Ministry of Security, Secretariat of Civil Protection and Risk Management of Chubut, the Road Safety Agency and the National Directorate of Road Safety. The mayor said that during the meeting the work of the day was planned and remarked that “today what is good, from the meteorological point of view, is that there is no wind forecast. What’s more problematic is that the temperature keeps rising, but since there is no wind for the operation, it’s much more advantageous.” For her part, the head of Civil Defense of El Hoyo, Luciana Cárdenas, said that “the actions for today are to continue focused on the part that we have the greatest risk and we have an orange alert in the sector of El Sauzal, which is a neighborhood near the fire.” Meanwhile, 58 people remain evacuated in School 223, with the assistance of the Ministry of Social Development, after the orange alert was declared that implies preparation for evacuation and preventive evacuation for the El Sauzal area, while Valle del Pirque continues under yellow alert. Yesterday it was recommended to the El Sauzal neighborhood to evacuate children and older adults because there was a lot of smoke in that sector. For today the same thing is still recommended because there is a lot of smoke still in the place, so School 223 is available, “said Cardenas.In turn, Civil Defense prohibited navigation and any other nautical activity in Puerto Patriada and El Desembarc until further notice at the request of the security forces that are fighting the fire. Meanwhile, in Chubut the igneous foci of El Pedregoso (Las Pataguas) and Los Cipreses (La Rinconada) were contained, reported the SNMF.

Original source in Spanish