Wildfires

Wildfires - Australia

Firefighters are working to contain a bushfire north of Brisbane but have warned they may not be able to protect every property in the semi-rural area and conditions could get worse.

Meanwhile Pilots flying over Bribie Island’s northwestern beaches were met by a heartbreaking scene this afternoon. Numbers of dead kangaroos were spotted from the air. They had been killed fleeing the bushfires. The bushfires at Bribie Island engulfed campsites on Wednesday and Thursday, with water bombers deployed from helicopters top douse the remaining flames today.

Wildfires - Bolivia

Bolivian authorities warned this week that 70% of the department of Santa Cruz — where more than a quarter of the country's population lives — is under "extreme risk" from forest fires.

According to the government, nearly 500,000 hectares of forest have now been turned into ashes.

According to Brazil’s space research centre (INPE), 72,843 fires have hit the country's side of the Amazon — an 83% increase on last year and the highest number registered since records began in 2013. The smokes from the wildfires on Wednesday caused an hour-long blackout in Sao Paulo, located 2,700 kms away.

Greenpeace has blamed the record number of wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon on deforestation. It also warned that it could have severe meteorological consequences for the region but also for the globe.