Fires

Costa Rica's Firefighters’ Corps reported that nearly 100 firefighters and volunteers managed to control some 75 percent of the wildfire on Sunday.

The ban stems from a study showing that sky lanterns, commonly known here as "globos de los deseos” or "wishing balloons," can burn through plastic, wood and other materials in minutes, constituting a major fire hazard.

Currently the fires are mostly concentrated in small, isolated burn areas primarily in three sectors. But all three of them are hard to access and very distant from each other.

Officials with the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) believe that some of the fires may have been started intentionally.

Firefighters currently are battling against four wildfires in protected areas in the provinces of Guanacaste, Alajuela and Puntarenas.

Firefighters in the northwestern province of Guanacaste worked until 3 a.m. on Wednesday to extinguish a wildfire that destroyed at least five hectares of Palo Verde National Park. The damaged area is mostly pastureland and secondary forest, park administrator Ulises Chavarría García said.

As windy and chilly weather – typical of the dry season – comes to Costa Rica this week, firefighters are also reminding the public that it's fire season. Firefighters this week urged residents to take precautions as more fires occur during the dry season than at any other time of the year.

Regeneration of burned areas could take up to 20 years.

Park authorities confirmed on Thursday that three hunters ignited the fire that burned roughly 1,000 hectares of land inside Palo Verde National Park in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.

More than 1,500 hectares (about 3,700 acres) of the Palo Verde National Park were charred in a blaze that officials believe was intentionally set.