Death toll from Peru’s forest fires rises to 18

LIMA, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) — The death toll from Peru’s forest fires increased to 18, the National Institute of Civil Defense (Indeci) said Friday.
The fires “have caused 165 people injured due to burns and unfortunately have claimed the lives of 18 people so far this year,” while some 2,000 hectares of crops have been affected, said Cesar Sierra, Indeci’s response director.
At a meeting held Friday at the National Emergency Operations Center headquarters, the institutional head of Indeci, Juan Urcariegui, said that 83 percent of the fires in the country “have already been controlled and extinguished.”
The government on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in the regions of Amazonas, San Martin and Ucayali due to severe fires.
Urcariegui added that two command posts have been deployed in the cities of Tarapoto and Pucallpa to coordinate actions in the affected areas.
UN data showed that nearly 60 percent of Peru’s territory is covered by tropical forests. Forest fires have been occurring more frequently and in a broader scope in the country, due to human activity such as the burning of dry grasslands for agricultural purposes, as well as the effects of climate change. ■