The smell of smoke, dense fog and the sound of rescue vehicles still persist in Quito more than 12 hours since seven simultaneous fires started in the city. The most serious occurred in Guápulo, in the north center of the city. The flames advanced to residential areas, where neighbors organized themselves and tried to control the fire with buckets of water.
According to Mayor Pabel Múñoz, a hundred families were evacuated. The latest update from the firefighters, who have not stopped working, indicates that there are still active fire spots. Starting at 6:00 a.m. this Wednesday, drones fly over the affected areas to determine hot spots. The mayor indicated that the fires are controlled but not eliminated.
The fires were set, according to the Minister of the Environment and president of the National Emergency Operations Committee, Inés Manzano. This was confirmed with the announcement of President Daniel Noboa, who was fulfilling an official agenda in the United States but who canceled it to “command all efforts against the enemy we face,” as announced in X.
If the fires are set, those responsible will be prosecuted for terrorism, said the president, whose arrival in Quito is expected later this Wednesday.
Muñoz, who directs the actions of the cantonal Emergency Operations Committee, described the arsons as “criminal and terrorist acts.” The Minister of Government, Arturo Félix Wong, asked the public for information about those responsible for the fires, while the Minister of the Interior, Mónica Palencia, indicated that people can call 131 to provide information about those responsible for causing the fires and announced a reward. For its part, the State Prosecutor’s Office reported that it began an ex officio investigation.
Around 10 p.m. on Tuesday, firefighters indicated that they managed to contain a fire that was caused by burning garbage. This, in the midst of the chaos that already existed in the city.
This Wednesday, September 25, in-person activities were suspended in Quito by order of local authorities and the central government. Classes, for example, are held online due to the poor air quality in the city.
Furthermore, in a statement, the Risk Management Secretariat asked citizens not to leave their homes so as not to congest the roads and give space for emergency corps vehicles to advance towards the affected areas.
Business associations in Quito and civil society organizations have begun to collect food and other items for those affected and for members of the fire department, the Armed Forces and the Police who are working to contain the fires. The redcoats from Santo Domingo, Riobamba, Lago Agrio and Pedro Vicente Maldonado, jurisdictions near Quito, also joined the local fire department. Furthermore, on social networks, citizens on their own began to offer their homes so that people who had to evacuate would have a safe place to stay until it was safe to return to their homes.
In the last month, Ecuador has recorded more than 1,300 forest fires that have devastated vast areas of the country. According to an official report from the National Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR), between August 23 and September 18, 2024, 1,337 fires were recorded in 21 provinces, affecting more than 23,000 hectares of vegetation cover. This figure exceeds by 284 fires those reported in the same period of 2023. According to the same official report, between July and September 2024 the rains were considerably less than usual. In the Coastal region, rainfall was between 20% and 80% below normal, while in the Sierra and the Amazon the deficit varied between 30% and 90%, and between 20% and 60%. %, respectively. This has contributed to the rapid spread of fires and complicated control efforts. However, a good percentage of forest fires have been caused, according to authorities.
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