Brazil: Fires across Brazil's Amazon region surged in October, fuelled by El Niño, climate change and human activity, a researcher said on Tuesday, as blazes sent thick smoke through the municipality of Autazes in Amazonas state.
Fires in Brazil's Amazon region jumped 84 per cent in the first two weeks of October compared with the same period the previous year, according to data from Brazil's Amazon surveillance system. In Amazonas state, fires surged 253 per cent to reach 1,679.
The fires, which officials suspect were deliberately set, prompted states of emergency in at least 36 municipalities across Amazonas and caused respiratory problems among residents.
Carlos Durigan, a geographer and researcher at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), said water and thermal stress were hitting with extreme intensity, creating dangerous conditions that threatened biodiversity, public health and land productivity.
Poor air quality caused by the fires led to the cancellation of outdoor events in Manaus, the state capital with more than two million residents, and the closure of public schools.
Brazil's environment minister, Joao Paulo Capobianco, spotted fires inside protected forest during an aerial survey and said the blazes pointed to deliberate arson intended to clear land for deforestation, according to his ministry.
Scientists attributed the prolonged dry conditions to El Niño and climate change, noting that rains failed to bring relief in October, as typically expected.