“We are going to increase with a Tanker plane and the flow of Guardian Boxes that we are using to fight the fire,” said President Luis Arce from the Fire Control Center in Santa Cruz.
From that point of monitoring and decision-making in the confrontation with the flames, Arce expressed that control on the roads of Santa Cruz and Beni will also be reinforced with soldiers, “so that there are not these people who are dedicated to setting fires, we are going to be much more alert,” he announced.
A first Electra Tanker T481 tanker aircraft and an Airbus BK117 D3 helicopter with a bambi Bucket device (water tank) arrived in Bolivia on September 21 and are participating in operations against forest fires.
The Electra Tanker T481, from the Air Spray company of Canada, has a multiple discharge capacity of 11,300 liters.
Referring to the issue, the Minister of Defense, Edmundo Novillo, confirmed that the second Electra Tanker T481 tanker plane will arrive in the country on Monday, and on Tuesday it will be operating, along with the rest of the planes and helicopters available.
“The contract has already been signed for the tanker plane to be here, it will start operating on Tuesday,” he commented, adding that a third Hercules C-130 plane will also be added.
All of these actions are part of the declaration of a national fire disaster, which allows the use of greater resources to quell forest disasters, activate international aid and cooperation, among other initiatives.
For more than 120 days, the fire has not stopped in several regions of Bolivian territory, with Santa Cruz as the epicenter, a territory followed by the department of Beni.
National and foreign firefighters operate in this confrontation by air and land.
“The news is encouraging, but we must not be careless, these fires are dynamic, today they can reduce and tomorrow increase,” warned the head of state.
In the available arsenal there are at least 200 guardian boxes, each of which can store up to a thousand liters of water.
Such devices are biodegradable containers that are launched from the air and release their contents, thereby creating a rain effect with great precision on the flames.
arc/jpm
