- Title: President Evo Morales joins firefighters to battle wildfires in Bolivia
- Date: 27th August 2019
- Summary: SANTA ROSA, BOLIVIA (AUGUST 27, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT EVO MORALES PUTTING ON OVERALLS TO BATTLE FIRES MORALES WALKING IN FOREST AREA MORALES SQUIRTING WATER ON BRANCHES SIMMERING LOG VARIOUS OF MORALES SQUIRTING WATER ON LOG (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT, EVO MORALES, SAYING: "We improvised our work here, thanks to the pilots that landed us on the Super Puma helicopter. You can see that we put out the fires in this place, four focal points. If the hot weather stays down, we have realised it is possible to work together and put it out (the fire)." FIRE-AFFECTED AREA MORALES SQUIRTING WATER ON BRANCHES MORALES CARRYING BACKPACK FROM LOCAL RANGERS VARIOUS OF MORALES SQUIRTING BRANCHES WITH WATER VARIOUS OF FIREFIGHTERS AND RANGERS WORKING TO PUT OUT FIRE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT, EVO MORALES, SAYING: "About 800 teams have been deployed to extinguish the fires. About a 100 more teams have arrived, and we will not only continue to provide more people, volunteers, but also soldiers and police. I am also thinking in the short term for members of the community to be well trained so as to stop fires at the point of starting in the future." MORALES ON BOARD HELICOPTER FLYING OVER AREAS AFFECTED BY WILDFIRES SMOKE RISING FROM FOREST MORALES LOOKING OUT OF HELICOPTER GENERAL VIEW OF FOREST FROM HELICOPTER VARIOUS OF SMOKE RISING FROM FOREST HELICOPTER (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT, EVO MORALES, SAYING: "We didn't think that the wind and the direction of the wind would result in the return of the fire at the Amazon Chiquitania. But we are here to continue working. But it's impossible to put it out, look the fire is striking up again." VARIOUS OF MORALES IN MEETING WITH SOLDIERS MORALES SPEAKING SOLDIERS AT MEETING
- Embargoed: 11th September 2019 00:13
- Keywords: wildfires Bolivia President Evo Morales Santa Rosa firefighters
- Location: SANTA ROSA, BOLIVIA
- City: SANTA ROSA, BOLIVIA
- Country: Bolivia
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Wildfires/Forest Fires,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001ATZWBBB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Bolivia's President Evo Morales joined firefighters in Santa Rosa on Tuesday (August 27) to help crew put out wildfires, as the country struggles to contain blazes across Bolivia.
The blazes are burning unabated across vast swaths of hilly tropical forest and savannah near Bolivia's border with Paraguay and Brazil. At least 1 million hectares, or approximately 3,800 square miles, have been impacted by the fires, officials said.
Bolivia late last week contracted a Boeing 747 "Supertanker" from the United States to help with the fire-fighting, and has mobilised more than 2,000 firefighters, as well as small aircraft and helicopters.
But the area affected by wildfire has nonetheless nearly doubled since Thursday (August 22).
Thousands of wildfires are also decimating the neighbouring Brazilian Amazon, the world's largest rainforest. The blazes have nearly doubled this year compared with the same period in 2018, prompting global outrage.
(Production: Santiago Limachi, Monica Machicao) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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