Four fires affecting some 600 hectares in Buenos Aires in southern Costa Rica are keeping the Firefighters’ Corps busy. Thursday, the fires prompted the National Emergency Commission (CNE) to declare a yellow alert – the second of the country’s three alert levels.
Blazes are moving into La Amistad International Park, so CNE has also issued a green alert in the nearby canton of Pérez Zeledón.
Government authorities from Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) explained this Thursday that firefighter teams will be reinforced by support brigades from the Costa Rican Water and Sewage Institute and a police squad from Cartago.
Wildfires this year have increased more than 200 percent over the same period last year, according to Luis Diego Roman, coordinator of National Wild land Fire Commission. “Costa Rica is going through one of the worst wild fire seasons in the last 10 years,” he said.
