Riviera Maya, Q.R. — At least 600 hectares of state land has already been destroyed by forest fires this season. Guillermo Núñez Leal, the Director of State Civil Protection, says the hardest hit municipality has been José María Morelos.
According to Núñez Leal, nearly half of the state’s burned land has been recorded in that municipality. To date, more than 280 hectares of José María Morelos land has burned already this year due to forest fires.
There are five fires currently active around the state. He says two of them are in the southern Maya Zone, one in Bacalar, another in Othón P. Blanco and one more in the municipality of Isla Mujeres.
Núñez Leal said that due to the challenges in José María Morelos, flyovers have been conducted in search of other fires. The two areas of focus include the communities of Dos Aguadas and Adolfo de la Huerta where larger fires have occurred in previous years.
There are approximately 200 forest firefighters from the Comisión Nacional Forestal (Conafor) working to extinguish the state’s fires.
According to the latest update from Conafor, there are currently 93 active forest fires burning in 21 states across Mexico. More than 3,200 firefighters are working to put them out.
Already this year, 60,157 hectares has been burned across the country. Of the active fires, 18 of them are in Natural Protected Areas.
