There are at present no active forest fires in Colombia, after blazes struck more than 400 Colombian municipalities so far in 2010, according to the Interior and Justice Ministry, reports Radio Santa Fe.
The Ministry’s risk management director Luz Amanda Pulida said that the last report from the Office for the Prevention and Attention of Disasters recorded no active fires in the country.
Since the beginning of the year, wildfires have destroyed 69,279 hectares of vegetation in departments across the country, said Interior and Justice Minister Fabio Valencia Cossio.
Colombia has experienced a particularly dry period in the first months of 2010, due to the El Niño phenomenon. Drought has baked the Colombian countryside, and unusually high temperatures of over 40 degrees have been recorded around the country.
Dengue fever-related deaths are skyrocketing in Colombia, due to conditions created by the drought. The cities of Cali and Villavicencio, and the whole Tolima department, have declared a state of health emergency over the deadly mosquito-transmitted disease.